Red Like Raspberries?
by Princess Santa Clause
Summary: Two girls from this world, find themselves submerged into the world of Rwby. It would be fun right? An exciting experience? Think Again! Facing the trials of this new world, and new school, whilst trying to uncover answers of so many questions is a tough job! Not only that, but who are these other teams? Why are they familiar? OC & SI! Lotsa OC x OC. Romance appeals later. Revised
1. The Misfit Express!

**A/N: Alrighty-ighty, my dear snowflakes, Princess Santa Clause here, and I'm here to inform you that this story is a collab between Chained Fighter and I! **

**Wait! ...Lemme explain.**

**Now, we know Rwby is still relatively new, but that shouldn't stop a creative flow, AmIRight? So here's a crazy fanfic to set it off! Mixing a Self Insert with an Original Character story; because they're not enough craziness on their own! Still, it's super fun to work with her and write this. The catch? Well, with Rwby coming out with new episodes every Thursday, not everything may follow storyline. But THAT'S FINE! Because that's not our goal. This story will have a separate storyline, which may -and we're sure it will- merge with the canon storyline of Rwby from time to time. As a result, the canon storyline may be altered in this story; sometimes by a little and sometimes by a lot.**

**Second; this is a mainly OC story, excluding our SI's who will serve as the main characters here. There will be Canon Character appearances, but they will probably be kept to a minimum. Don't like that?**

**OH WELL. SANTA LOVES HER SNOWFLAKES ANYWAY.**

**This WILL be rated Teen; because Chantal, here, has a horrible sailor's mouth; and so do some of the OCs. Plus, it's nice having a little things for the teens and young adults and such. *FISTPUMP***

**In this story, my SI character is represented by Chantal, and she, by Bonnie. NOW LET'S GET DOWN TO DIS SHIET.**

**Santa: *Motions over to Chained* TAKE IT AWAY **_**'BONNIE'.**_

**Chained: A-ah….waita' put the pressure on me… Ah! Hi there! I'm not really used to a big crowd like this…Well no matter! This show must go on! I'm the Chained Fighter, and as you heard before, I'll be playing the role of Kiyo- er…Motsu- Gob dannit! Bonnie!**

**Santa: You'd totes be Kiyowa js. (That Lucky Stars Reference tho.)**

**Chained: There…now her little…snowflakes? Really? **

**Santa: DON'T JUDGE ME!**

**Chained: Well, I don't write the script here- it's time for a story that I hope you'll enjoy! Filled with-well, I can't just TELL you, now can I? Upupu… 10 points to whoever finds that quote out. And that is now it for the weather! Back to you Tal!**

**Santa: Where there you have it, folks! Ain't she a natural? LOL. Well! On with the story! Or uh.. Continue with the story.. for those of you who skipped this. *Eyeroll***

"If, by any chance, would it even be remotely possible to get a smaller lawn?" Mumbled a mocha skinned female as she trudged her electronic lawnmower across the thick grass. The mower was continuously losing power, causing the young lady to want to throw it off to the side in frustration. Gripping her teal nail-polished hands on the bar of the machine, she turned around on her heel, marching back to the garage to store the now dead device, not caring about her beat-up red and white tennis shoes. They could have more stained green as a result of the continuous walk through the grass for all she cared.

"You done?" She saw her brother's lips form into the words as she walked into the spacious garage; the reason that she wasn't able to hear him being that she still had on her music blasting ear buds straight from her iPod. The girl nodded her head in reply, prompting the young man to take the mower away from her as she aired out her loose shirt and gym shorts, finally reaching down to lower her black socks.

At rough tap on her shoulder was enough for her to turn back to her elder brother in surprise. "What?" Unfortunately, his mouth moved to fast for her to comprehend. Sighing and pulling up her brown toned glasses in the process, the female plucked one ear bud out of her ear, tipping her head as a signal for him to repeat himself.

"You did a good job," The girl's dark brown eyes dulled at the boy's comment, leading her to scratch the left section of her thick and black curly brown hair, a feature she hated more that her almost nonexistent eyebrows, which, at that point, were raised slightly.

"Is that all?" She asked, watching him store the machine beside a stack of wooden crates.

"Yea, pretty much," He grinned, knowing that it would take a while to have her ear bud in just the right position once more, lest she'd get a headache out of frustration.

"You're immature," Tugging at her chin length hair, the young girl rolled her eyes and tipped her head slightly, looking out into the scenery once more before it would be out of sight by the closing garage door.

At that moment, the melody of a piano began to play out to her adjusting ear, disrupting the track that was currently playing on her handheld device. The girl slowly looked up to the ceiling, the wall, and the floor in confusion before finally looking at her iPod to see if the water damage she caused it was coming back with a vengeance.

Sadly, the mobile device was playing smoothly, still playing its instrumental downloaded from one of her favorite video games. By the time the girl slowly took her ear buds out, the words started to play.

_Mirror, tell me something_

_Tell me who's the lo~nliest of all_

"Juni I promise on your handheld that if you've been messing with my music I'll-" She stopped cold as she noticed her brother wasn't in the garage with her. In fact, nothing was in the garage with her; the lawnmower was nowhere to be found, the stacks of crates and other tools were all gone, most of them being too hard to carry without a few hours and much needed help. Even the walls were stripped of the papers they usually had, not even leaving the squares of carpet in the now bare room. Paling, the girl dropped to her knees, pulling her hands to her chest and interlocking her fingers.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, oh God please I'm sorry," The girl repeated frantically as the music was well past the beginning and heading to the middle. She repeated the same words, soon saying them in every language she could in order to trigger some secret code to have everything back to normal. Because this was anything but normal, "Quit fooling around you guys!" She helplessly called out to the rest of her four siblings, hoping that it was some kind of joke, "You know I don't like being scared!" The girl knew the music well; it was the theme from her favorite RWBY character, Weiss Schnee, sung by Casey Lee Williams. Hopefully someone had dug into her playlist and snatched the first thing they saw, playing it to scare her. Of course, that was it. She was fine and that was that.

Unfortunately, things went from bad to worse for the young lady, for as soon as the piano music took an intense turn, the girl was sent spiraling down a glowing white hole in the middle of her garage. She shrieked, wishing to be back in her home as she continued her speedy decent down the swirled passage until the last note played, prompting the hole to close. The female ceased her shrieks as she fell face first unto a tan tiled floor, quickly getting up on her knees and rubbing her nose at the sheer pain of it all.

"Ow…" She muttered. Finally realizing the situation she was in, she hastily peered up at her surroundings, her eyes not being able to open widely as a result of the fall. Her eye problem was soon cleared up as her heart felt like it was about to jump out of her throat, open the front door, and never look back.

She was in a classroom, that was for certain; a lecture hall of sorts, staring into the countless eyes if students, all silent and looking back at her. As her stomach flip flopped, she could only stammer.

"Th-this isn't…" At last, in a flash of green and pink, all the girl then saw was black.

Sigh...

Walking down the driveway after a tiring, yet somewhat exciting day of school, a young brunette could only sigh to herself. Gazing upon the multiple cars that littered her driveway, her brown eyes only needed to swipe once to know that none of those car owners were present. See, for whatever reason, people around this house had an odd kind of taste when it came to vehicles, most of the time, that taste being that they wanted more than one. It was a confusing thing for the sophmore student, considering she had yet to receive even one drivable car or truck, for that matter, of her own. Regardless of that fact, she never complained. Driving was something that frightened her a bit.

Shaking the thought from her head in a hasty fashion that forced her somewhat shaggy, and purposely fluffed ponytail to swing and smack against her cheeks repeatedly, she forced her mind back into the present. A subtle yawn escaped her lips, one that she made no attempt to stifle as she dragged herself up the pale blue steps of her porch. Just as she was about to enter, the sound of an engine snatched her attention. Despite this small, rural-like sector of suburbia being relatively peaceful and void of any real outlawish behavior, she forced herself to turn out of a sliver of internal paranoia.

Her father's bulky truck had just pulled in, much to her delight. Days that he arrived home early were days that she could walk inside and take a load off, rather than waiting around for an hour until her nephew's bus came speeding down the main stretch. "Thanks dad," She murmured to herself while waving her hand towards his peering head. He merely acknowledged her with a nod; so clearly he had other business at the time, likely a phone call by the way his voice reached even through the wound up truck window. She turned and entered through the white painted door and into the blue-gray entry room.

Another yawn stretched through her lips as she now trudged reluctantly down the hallway, where she ditched her heavy bundle of books on the surface of her desk. What to do, what to do.. There were usually alot of things to do, but they were never really brought to her attention until her mom came home and began to bellow about what _could_ have been done. Despite her knowledge of what her mom would say, and her overwhelming urge to lip sync her prediction in a mocking motion, she, surprisingly, passed up the opportunity. Instead, she moved out, back into the hallway, through the entry room, and into the family room, which was a dull painted beige, despite its exotic green carpet.

_What to do... What to do..._

Food was an idea, and yet her stomach kind of opted against it. A videogame maybe? Nah, she didn't feel too motivated for that... Drawing? Nope. Writing... She hadn't had an idea for any kind of story in months...

"Another day in the life of Chantal, huh.."

Sighing for what seemed like the 50th time that day, the brunette resigned to the black leather couch beside her. It was pressed against the wall, thus far from the sun, and as a result was cold to the touch. Ignoring the slight shiver for now, Chantal turned onto her side and pressed her knees up somewhat towards her chest. She was too tired to worry about the cold right now; besides, she handled the cold relatively well, or at least better than heat.

For the third time in less than ten minutes, she yawned, intense enough to bring a slight swelling of water to the corners of her eyes. Even if she seemed this fatigued, she knew she wouldn't sleep. She hardly ever took naps, because her body's internal clock seemed to follow a certain 'once you're up, you stay up', kind of policy -without her acceptance, of course-. Yep.. even if she really wanted to, there was just no way she would actually-

"zzzzzzzz"

Well.. Perhaps she was even more tired than she once thought.

Slowly, faint, purple dusted eyelids began to slowly open. The room was blurred and her eyes felt a little heavy at the moment, "errrr.." She murmured softly to herself. Her ears felt like they were ringing a familiar tune, but she couldn't be too sure about that right now. More than anything, she needed to gather her bearings. Last time she checked, she had fallen asleep on the couch, a bedding area that was a little less than comfortable, what with her head resting on an entirely higher level than her body. It put undesired stress on her neck that felt tense and painful through the side. Ah yes.. that dreaded couch.. Slowly, she raised her body up, keeping her back straight and neck stiff. Moving it would likely cost a shit load of pain that she simply didn't want to deal with just after waking, "Okay.." She said to herself in coaching, shutting her eyes, "Here we go.." Placing her hand carefully up on the side of her neck, she tipped her head off to lean on the right side.

Surprisingly enough, there was no pain.

That's when her eyes opened, sharpness of her sight through the glasses she had fallen asleep in suddenly focusing. First, the medium brown eyes of hers focused on the bed in which she lied, "The fuck.." She murmured to herself. The bed sheets were jumbled together in an untidy ball that rested atop her legs, but more importantly, they were white. Her own bedding was blue, her mother and father's was black, her sister's and nephew's a soft beige, and her brother's, steel gray. Nowhere in their house were there white sheets.

Not only that, but she came to notice the bed was rather narrow, probably just large enough to comfortably provide for one person. Every other bed in her home was large enough for at least two. This was peculiar, very peculiar, and as a result of these numerous abnormalities, her breathing pace began to quicken.

Softly swallowing, Chantal lifted her head hesitantly to take in the rest of the room. It was large and mainly white with subtle trimmings of red. Nowhere in her house, after her father's experimental painting sessions, were there white walls. Now, breathing went from quick and unsteady in pace, to caught in her throat and hardly releasing. For a period, in fact, she was frozen out of these oddities' impact on her sliver of present paranoia.

Not a word passed through her sealed lips as she turned her body and moved to hop from the bed, but she noticed, a second too late, that the distance from suspended air to floor was alot higher than her own bed at home. As a result of the underjudged jump, she felt herself fall face first into the floor. She was a clutz, and she would own up to that, but the current jelly-kneed state she was facing certainly didn't help her case. "Bitch.." She muttered under her breath, whilst rubbing at her throbbing nose and stumbling to her feet in a disoriented fashion.

Her head craned around to scan the room one more time. No signs of anyone else anywhere, in fact, it seemed to be a relatively large room of nothing but emptiness. She would move hesitantly towards the door.

"I need to keep quiet," She assured herself in a hushed whisper. Her hand pressed open the door, and she prayed to herself that there would be no backlash to her action, like the creak of an unoiled door hinge. Fortunately, there was none. "I've seen this kind of shit on the I.D. channel too many times before..." Her head poked out of the door, a little at first, then in its entirety.

Large hallways with such high ceilings, that it made her little 5'6 seem completely insignificant. Suddenly, she felt very small. A little unnerving, sure, being that she would always tell her mother she didn't want a big house for fear that she would get lost in it, but she was determined that it wouldn't halt her exploration. After all, it never stopped those abducted women on the I.D. channel. She tiptoed at first, looking around and making the attempt to commit the layout to memory, then after a few minutes of walking without as much as a footstep in the distance, she began to walk more casually.

To the her left, a door that was slightly ajar opened further by the soft push of someone on the inside. The one walking out of the door was a man, not particularly old though his grayish-white hair color said otherwise, adorned in a dark green suit with a series of lighter green shades. The man even wore green toned glasses, barely covering up his sharp silver eyes. As he walked further out of his room, he noticed this light brunette, who hadn't heard the small creaking of the door, walking through the hallway. Sipping what seemed like a brown liquid in a white mug he held with a dark cane in his opposite hand, the man hummed softly in thought, raising a brow before recollecting his thoughts. Lowering the mug from his mouth, he slowly nodded his head in comprehension, calmly stepping towards her,his neutral facial expression unchanging.

"So, it seems that you've made your way out without the need of any assistance," His semi-deep voice, although at a low volume and in a very large place, resonated through the hall, soon to reach Chantal.

Although he hadn't seemed too threatening from a face-to-face view, this _wasn't_ a face to face view. He had practically snuck up behind her, being that he exited whilst she continued to walk, "A...Ah.." She trailed to herself involuntarily. She was a bit nervous, and the rapid drying of her throat made that clear. Ever so slowly, she began to turn around. Alright... so that was peculiar.. It seemed this male greatly resembled a character from Rwby she had seen through the first season; -which was practically the only season she had even began to see-. Her mind forced her to shake it off. Clearly, that was the most impossible thing that could happen right now, as well as the most cliche. Narrowing a cautious glare, she looked up at his outfit, -which seemed pretty accurate-, then to his face and hair. '_Shame on me for even thinking that.. That's the __FAKEST__silver hair I've ever seen...' _Without answering the man at all, she began to hold her glare strong, whilst slowly retreating in -what she hoped to be- undetectable baby steps.

The silver haired man raised an eyebrow as he took a sip of his coffee, noticing the girl's cautious movements. Peering behind the young female, he knew exactly where she was going to run off to. At that moment, a soft smile came across his face before speaking once more,

"Now before you go running off, I-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Chantal turned a 180 and broke into a sprint down the hallway, "HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!" She practically screeched, nearly stumbling as she kept up her running. She needed assistance. This place was large, but she was paying no attention to detail. It was so empty, in fact, that she was sure she could continue running straight down without seeing a single face, nor hearing a single footstep.

"I think.." She trailed, looking around, "I'm.. in the clear.." She'd ran long enough, right? She should have lost the man. Plus, he was nowhere in sight. Yes, she must have lost him. Her breaths were a little sharp and rasped, and her legs were tingling from fatigue. She had been running for a while, and her adrenaline was beginning to forsake her internal fuel tanks. Sighing, she took this time to actually pay closer attention to her surroundings, rather than just trying to remember for layout purposes. It bore, now that she realized, a striking resemblance to Beacon... And this could only mean two things... Well considering she had mentally vowed to outtake any possible supernatural behavior from the equation, just because of a few abnormalities, that meant... This could only mean one thing.

"These sick...cosplayers," She began to grumble under her breath, medium brown eyes suddenly beginning to grow wide behind her purple pattern-framed glasses, "They kidnapped me, and... they're planning to... Whataretheyplanningtodo.." She shook her head, "Ugh! It doesn't matter what they're trying to do! It's just something no good, I know! Wait.." Suddenly stepping backwards and placing her hand over her chest, she gripped at the black polo shirt in a handful, "I'm talkng to myself.. I'm going frigging nuts... Okay.. think. think!"

She enclosed her hands into a tight fist and stormed over to the wall on the opposite side of the hallway, "There's no way that this place.. This manor.. This fake-me-out Beacon.. Hah.." She trailed awkwardly, legitamently beginning to believe she was falling into a state of insanity, "Hah.. It's cardboard..or something.." Her foot reared back, and she slammed her toe into the wall, "OW! Ow ow owww!" Okay, so it definitely was _not _ cardboard. Her pained toe could vouch for that much. She brought her foot up closer to her thigh level and gripped onto her toe whilst jumping up and down, "Ow ow owww..!"

This was around the time that she noticed the Hallway had gotten alot busier. Her eyes lulled over to the side, and immediately she paused, stopping her writhing and hopping, but still holding her foot, "What..." She trailed, watching the people walk by, and some shoot her odd glances, "The Hell is going onnn hereee..?" She trailed to herself in a muffled, sing-song tone that came whisping out from pursed lips.

Her mind began to focus on a possibility, or a need for escape whilst possibly helping others in the process, "HEY!" She shouted, throwing her foot down, though hobbling on it a bit while flailing her arms around, "You're all in danger! There's a kidnapper among you!"

Apparently, her warning didn't come off as she wished, for majority of the uniformed students were staring at her like she was insane. Not the reaction she was going for.

**A/N: Whelp! That's Chapter 1... Yep. 1. That's the end. On a cliffhanger... GET MAD ALL YOU WANT, but I recomend you don't, because while you're flailing and storming around the house like Godzilla, you might miss out on when we upload the rest later on!**

**That's right; Since we didn't meet the deadline due to technical difficulties, we'll be posting the rest of this chapter somewhere around midnight tonight. After all, the only reason we sent it through the trimmer was because it was SUPER long; but hey, most good Pilots are. **

**Santa: To you again, Chained!**

**Chained: Again!? Ah, where do I begin…I hope you liked it! And just so ya know, I didn't decide on the cliffe-cliff…hangar…eheheh… she did! It was her! She is the one you want… **

**Santa: Wow! Way to rat me out, you jerkwad!**

**Chained: . ...Anywho, the chappy-chap shall be put up! That….that right there…that was my idea…don't kill me! Take it away Tom-er, Tal… **

**Santa: Tom. Nice... Anywhore. She's right. Cliffhanger was my idea. I'm evil. You're lucky she's the nicer of the two of us and decided to save yo- I mean. I love you, Snowflakes...*Hearts* Cya at later to see if we're screwed!**


	2. The Misfit Express Part 2!

"Hey!" She would hear an extremely sharp voice coming from the right of her. The voice was dripping with annoyance, with hints of hostility. One by one, the murmuring groups of students cleared the way for the voice's keeper, revealed to be a fair skinned young man, taller than her by what looked like a foot and a handful of inches. He was wearing the same uniform as the rest of the students, consisting of a red tie, white undershirt with hints of blue, over a black blacker with gold highlights. His pants and dress shoes were the same base color as his jacket. He narrowed his piercing red eyes at the female, his face twisted in what looked like a permanent scowl as he went on.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He began, crossing his arms while looking down at her, his white chin length hair, -red at the majority of the top and consisting of a type of swirl pattern- brushing over the bottoms of his red eyebrows,"Don't you know this place doesn't take lou-"

Chantal was staring up to him, clear fear in her brown eyes. Not only had he completely intimidated her, but his height, accompanied with his oddly colored eyes and nasty attitude, were grounds grounds for fright.

The young man cut his scolding, taking a moment to once her over. His eyebrow rose slightly at her choice in clothes. Clearly her black polo shirt and tan khaki's weren't the standard uniform that every other student in sight wore, which made the young lady stand out even more. Studying her from top to bottom now, his face, though still angry, registered recognition, prompting him to roll his eyes, "You're one of them, aren't you?"

_'One of them?'_ She thought, repeating it multiple times in her head. That could have meant alot of things. The current situation pretty much gave all of those things a bad conotation too. For reason of mentally mulling possibilties over, she remained unresponsive to his questioning, triggering more irritation from the mysterious male.

Sighing and shaking his head, he took a step towards her, his scowl still apparent, "Come with me…" He said in an exasperated tone.

Like HELL she would be coming with him willingly! She had finally settled on an idea of his words that made sense. It was so clear! How could she not see it before!? _'So they're SERIAL kidnappers!'_ She stared up at the male. This swirly, seasonal candy looking guy that was so dangerously close...And she thought. She thought of a plan. That's what she thought of... Slowly, as though conforming to his wishes, she began to push herself to her feet, despite the aching in her burning calves. The rising seemed harmless for the moment, that is, until she abruptly gulped in a sharp intake of air and attempted to cut through the mass of students standing about, "_**BLOODY MURDE...rr..r..r...r...**_"

Her voice began to die down almost immediately -along with her attempts at running-, until only a shell of what it once was came squeaking quietly out of her lips. She had been cut off by a larger male, whom she'd practically run into. He came emerging through the crowd like the Incredible Hulk or something! Except he was blue!

She would have backed up immediately, but the jelly-effect coming back to her legs was making her ease away at a much slower, cautious-seeming pace.

"Bloody…what?" He questioned, his voice strong, but passive. Though he wore the same uniform as the red and white haired male, that was about the only thing they had in common. His eyes were soft -much like his tone- blue like his short, light blue hair. Putting his pale-toned hands up in front of him, he smiled sympathetically, chuckling even, "I…think you've got the wrong idea…"

"No, no, she might be right," The red eyed male snarked, crossing his arms as he looked down on her, "If she keeps irritating me, she will be."

"Now that's not very nice…" The blue haired one laughed awkwardly, practically feeling both the tension of his red and white haired comrade and the confusion of the lingering students, "Now, we should start to clear things up."

"In private," Was all the red male added, passing glares at the students who had stayed behind, who now began to actively race to their classes.

That glare wasn't only effective on the students, but also on this girl here. Chantal kept questioning who and what in her mind; sometimes even why and how! '_Who are these guys..?' _She trailed. A candy cane on steroids and a blue Hulk... Maybe not appropriate for labeling them, but all that she could think of at the time. "Ah..A-Ah.." Her ability to form words had abandoned her, along with her body's ability to function. She drew in an unsteady gulp, murmuring only a soft, "You..." That had avoided their range of hearing. Her speech-ability was quickly returning, but her blurring tunnel vision was so strong that she never even got to see their reactions, or whether they were even paying attention. "You.. SCARY ASS PEOPLE! GET AWAY FROM ME!" She cried, flailing her arms with her frantic screams, "HELP!"

"Yep," The so-called candy cane groaned as he rubbed the inside of his ear with his knuckle, obviously annoyed. By the way his jaw moved as he resisted rolling his eyes, one could see that his teeth were clenched. This young man was definitely not happy, nor was he in the process of being such.

"N-now, calm down…" The blue boy urged, not knowing whether to kneel to the girl's height or to walk over to his friend. Just who was this directed to? Because it seemed as though both of them needed the same advice. "Now…why don't you just come with us for now?"

Would she listen to that? Chances were slim to none, leaning more towards the latter.

It seemed the red and white boy understand that, for he blatantly stated it,

"Aw can it, she won't listen anyway." His urge got the better of him, as his eyes finally rolled, he stepped up once more and reached for Chantal, "We're wasting time. Just grab her and let's go."

Instantly, Chantal shyed away, suddenly making her way a little further from them.

"I…think you're making the situation worse…" Emmett trailed.

"And how is that?" Peter grumbled in inquiry.

"You're giving her the wrong idea…"

"Doesn't matter to me how many ideas this girl gets. She's not causing anymore trouble."

"Well, maybe if we could peacefully…"

Their words were getting a little further away now, for the chestnut haired girl was slowly beginning to move across the floor like an inchworm, except more like an inchworm standing on its own, two nonexistent feet. Good thing they hadn't noticed, because it took a little longer for her to get away than it would have if she'd just ran away all heavy-footed-like.

Once far enough away, though, she wasted no time dashing down the hall at blazing speed... Alright, not blazing speed. She was sore as Hell, and in a little too much pain to move that fast. "Damn it!" She cursed softly to herself, as she threw open practically every unlocked door in the hallway. To her dismay, she noticed they were either filled with wary, and confused students, or just void of life altogether. Terrible break! She turned down a new wing at the end of the hallway, through which she had yet to travel.

"Damn it damn it damn it!" She kept whisper-shouting, noticing each attempt yielded no better results. Throwing open one door after another, she seemed to sling one open that held..Promise. It was filled with large objects and beds. A plain, white, uniformed room, looking near exactly like the one in which she had began! "They'll never check someplace this obvious..!" She practically threw herself inside, staggering with a combination of disorientation and fatigued legs. Or... maybe her problem was that she just wanted to snuggle up in that bed she was in earlier, "Jesus Christ, I need a 5-Hour Energy.."

She began to slow to a walk, and started to try examining the room. She needed to find a hiding place, or at least someone that was in there now that could help her. Hell, maybe it could be one of those Victims Unite kind of situations. Okay, so she was clearly going too far with this I.D Channel thing.

Through her examination, she looked at the subtle details.. Changes maybe. It was much larger than she remembered, and whiter, and..Plainer. So she had chosen the wrong room then. That was a shame, but being that she was already there, there was no way she could just abandon the room to find another. '_Especially not with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb out and about, probably turning the corner any second..'_

Taking in a shaking, hesitant breath, she moved behind an outstretching wall that strung out closer to the center of the room, contributing to its irregular shape. It should be able to hide her adequately. She decided she would lie in wait, probably try and see if she could hear them passing by before she came out in the open.

A light sigh of frustration drew out from her partially closed lips. She was running aimlessly in a state of overwhelming confusion, and it was beginning to take it's toll on her! What was she supposed to do with no idea where to go? Just keep running? In defeat, she pressed her back against the portion of the wall behind which she had hidden, she she sank down to the ground, "So waiting it is..."

Little did Chantal know, that her actions had indirectly brought life to another in the room.

In fact, the moment the door was closed, consciousness had began to spread through the body of another. Breathing in softly, this other being, this female being, took in the scent of the air. She halted mid-sniff, finding that the smell wafting about this room to be completely different.

'_Wait...'_ This other girl thought, her eyes still closed, as though feigning sleep. Consider it a talent, as she could regain consciousness, without showing any signs of such. '_Wasn't I in the garage?'_ Immediately, her memories flooded into her mind of moments prior to this unconscious state. After mowing the lawn, she had tripped...no, fallen, into a white, zigzagged... no.. spiral-type hole that had opened just beneath her, and thrown her into an unknown-

An unknown what? She developed a look of discomfort over her clearly fabricated memories, as soreness developed in the pit of her stomach. It was nervousness. It was obviously impossible for any of that to happen. Her inner thoughts pushed off of the backburner, and into the center of her brain as she tried to psych herself out of her self-proclaimed idiotic thoughts.

_'__Where is the science in this?__'_

She thought,

_'Y__ea, a hole opens up right below me. Right._

_How stupid can I get?_

_Think in reality__, __dummy!__'_

With her resolve now steeled, she breathed out, ignoring the new scent of the room by dismissing it as her sister buying a new candle. A new candle that obviously had a more...sterile scent than most. When she came home, she would really have to advise her older sister to invest in a better sense of smell.

Yawning, the girl opened her eyes to the plain, white backdrop. Sure, her room was white -as she could never beg her parents enough to let her paint it-, but it was never this white. Bolting up and out of bed, she turned her head from side to side, surveying her surroundings in panic. The drawings and posters that lined her room were absent from view; in fact, her walls were out of her view! This room that looked like a calm infirmary, frightened the black haired female to no end. Grabbing her neck habitually out of panic, she resisted breathing heavily. She didn't know where she was, and nothing promised that this place was safe...

This movement of panic and sound of a mattress altering positions on the other side of the room, forced Chantal out from behind the cover of her little room corner. Her gaze hesitantly reached over, body stiffening with fear. This was horror movie material! When zombies and failed experiments come crawling back to life from out of the haunted infirmary! Immediately her mind wandered to that RPG game, Misao's Curse. More specifically, she thought of that one part that featured an infirmary being used for sickening body alteration experiments. "I'm not hiding in a corpse," She whispered repeatedly to herself, but her words began to fade and waver as she noticed a figure's shadow rising up from behind the curtain-like covering that hid that tiny sector of the room from view.

Immediately, she screamed, and as if her shriek was complemented by unision, the black haired female responsible for the fear simultaneously screamed with her.

Unfortunately, for the black haired girl over yonder, however, she spilled onto the floor, legs up and out as she smacked her backside on the hard tile. Of course, this just made her scream even louder, "Slender! Mama! Witch's House! Creepy Pasta! I'm sorry! I don't want five nights, just please give me morning!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, referencing each and every fright web sensation she feared as she slid into a corner whilst knocking down a small tray. She was too scared to notice, let alone recognize its contests.

That familiar voice. Chantal began to suddenly quiet down, her attention being drawn by it. She recognized that scream anywhere! she'd heard it quite enough, after all! The horrified expression she held moments ago was suddenly replaced with a smile as she advanced a couple of steps, "Bonnie!?" Cue the sudden comfort! Even if she was stuck in an unfamiliar place, it was almost like a change in the feel of it when near someone she knew. She felt herself required to have strength for the others when around friends, and plus, around such friends, it was like a new humor introduced itself, turning all of this into some game. She tore back the drapes, sounding elated now, "It _Is_ You!"

_'Holy Elsword, it knows my name_..." The girl called Bonnie thought to herself, not taking enough care to distinguish the voice as anyone she had recognized. All she knew, was that it was an unfamiliar place where anything could happen, and she, for one, was **NOT** ready to kick the bucket just yet!

"P-Please!" She continued pleading in a terrified tone, "J-Just please! S-Stay away from me!" Was she really trying to reason with what she assumed to be an evil entity?! The girl had truly gone insane now.

Further approaching to look down with folded arms, Chantal said nothing, only evaluated her friend's insanity like some sort of judge, whilst still holding a skeptical expression, "Umm..Bonnie.." She trailed, tipping her head off to the right while blinking a few times, "It's me?" Clearly, her friend was in a particularly fragile state, the same Chantal herself was in a few moments ago, actually.. So naturally, she understood, but she still needed to get her point across hastily, so that they could skip the fear montage and get right to finding a method of escape, "It's Chantal.."

Bonnie hesitated took her own hands, which were on top of her thick hair for a moment, and lowered them down towards her ears, "C-Chan..?" She stammered. She never had the heart for these such events, "T-That's..."

Chantal was now smiling a hopeful smile as she nodded her head, "Yup!" She chimed, "And it really is you!" She recognized the nickname, Chan, one of the names that very few called. She hopped on up a few steps, reaching out to offer a hand so that she could help her friend to her feet, "Now hurry up! We have to try and find a way out of here! You won't believe what happene-"

"Stay back!" Bonnie yelled, backing away from her friend further, "Wh-Who are you?" One would think this had already been discussed, but Bonnie had allowed her inner thoughts -more pessimistic thoughts- to take over. In a place like this, she wouldn't be surprised if this 'Chantal' was just some sort of fraud. It wasn't impossible, right?

To this, Chantal's eyes slowly began to pull together in a squint, her lips upturning to spell out an expression that roughly translated to something like, 'What the Hell did I JUST say?' She took a deep breath, raising her voice, "Chantal!" She repeated frustratedly, "Chantal Aidens!?"

"No! You filthy liar!" The black haired young lady yelled angrily, "That's not possible! I'm not allowed to go outside, so I know there's no way you can be Chan!" Clearly, she wasn't happy with someone trying to impersonate her best friend for whatever kind of benefit, "You clone!"

The 'fake' in question, really wanted to argue that this was far from Bonnie's home, but she could understand the denial. So instead, she just kept quiet, pursing her lips and waiting for her to finish. Still, she seemed to stare dully, as she took a nasal inhale. How would she prove she wasn't a fake? Because her mind was telling her to just prove her authenticity with a backhand to the face! Somehow, by luck, one would guess, she managed to stay calm.

As Bonnie's heart began to beat faster, she had to wonder if she should be speaking so aggressively towards the fake. It was potentially dangerous, but above all, it was probably her ticket out.

Noticing the collective silence in the room now, Chantal continued to stare, deciding she had reached her conclusion. The brunette raised her hands, "Fuck it! I'll leave, and I'll leave you right here until you're willing to wake up and smell the criminal activity!" She backed up, keeping her hands raised, "I'll take my ass, walk it out of this room, and get out of here without these scary ass Rwby cosplayers hunting me down, on account of some super brilliantly awesome super plan, and you'll be all like," Adjusting her pitch to a higher octave, she dramatically clenched her hands together under her chin, looking up to the ceiling with watering eyes, "Oh, why ever didn't I listen to Chantal? She's so smart, and I'm so screwed!"

Alright, so apparently Bonnie just became a Southern Belle in that demonstration, but despite that, Bonnie managed to catch only one thing, "Rwby wha-?" She repeated in disbelief. Her mind started to trace back to Mirror Mirror, "W-Wait!" She had half a mind to believe this fake, but she wasn't in her right mind at the moment, "P-Please don't leave me..!" She needed all the help she could get, so trusting a clone just became her only option, lest the man of slenderness truly appear, "Tell me.. W-What do you mean..?"

Should the brunette indulge her curiosity? Or no.. She hummed to herself as she thought, turning around to face her friend whilst finally giving her shoulders a definitive shrug, "Okay okay.. So I woke up in a room like this," She began. She seemed to be talking with her hands, again, something common she did in order to validate her point while storytelling, "I started exploring, and I run into this guy that looks like Ozpin.. And you know I HATE Ozpin, so I was all like 'nuuu' and started running! I ran ALOT! Coach Haste would be proud! So, I try to get help and run into this seasonal candy and this blue hulk. Scary stuff. " By this point, she had folded her arms, quieting her loud hand gestures, "Apparnetly they know who we are or... from what they said, seemed it was more like _What_ we are.. But that's not important! I escaped like a bawws, and went running down the hall AGAIN! I got sick of all this running too, but you gotta do what you gotta do. SO I found this room, and I'm like 'This is where I started!' and YOU come out of nowhere like Frakenstein! SO I flipped the Hell out, and you.. Okay I think you know this part, so I'm gonna stop." Carried away. Once again.

The listening girl nodded in comprehension, though not entirely convinced. Either she was an extremely well thought out clone, or the real thing. Before she was able to make her choice in which, however, the door swung open, knob swinging back in tow to slam against the wall, causing Bonnie's inward shrieks to spill out externally, while Chantal only uttered a chest-stinging gasp.


	3. Revelation

**A/N: **

**Santa: Alright guys! We won't hold you up too much with this Author's note, since we kinda left you hanging on a cliffhanger last time. Agreed, Bon?**

**Chained: You left 'em hanging, not me. That was all you. But you know what they say: less is more, so let's not leave you waiting! We introduce, Moist Dreams in Malaysia! Oh….that's not the title we're using…? Ah….this is quite awkward… ten points to whoever gets that reference though…**

**Santa: Moist dreams in... Okay. No questions asked! READ AND ENJOY NOW AND FORGET THE MOIST MALA..lalaysia..**

"See!" A new female voice called in triumph, "I told you she'd be in here!"

"It seems she was right all this time…" A familiar voice muttered.

"I just didn't think she'd be that stupid…" The voice of a seasonal haired young man groaned in disappointment,"It's the first place we'd check."

"Well Pete, in her defense, this was the last place you checked."

"Aw, can it Ro," The candycane retorted.

Looking up and paling, Bonnie noticed three strange people in what seemed like Beacon uniforms at the front door conversing amongst themselves. The one referred to as 'Pete' had a strange combination of red and white in his hair for whatever reason while the one name 'Ro' was a slender, pink haired girl who was, in fact, shorter than the blue haired young man that appeared behind her, yet taller looking than herself and Chantal.

Looking at the two with pink eyes, Ro grinned sweetly, slowly stepping forward with an unexplainable grace to her.

To Chantal, the two males were not strangers, rather something more along the lines of unwanted friends. The female however.. this Ro, girl. Yeah, she was a mystery to her. So, while she was a little calmer in expression than Bonnie, Chantal was still quite nervous while looking them in the face.

"You two look terrified…" Ro cooed, a sympathetic look on her face, "I bet mean ol' Pete tried to tie you guys up or something."

"I was getting there," Pete replied, an unmistakable scowl on his features, this of which frightened Bonnie to no end.

"And he dragged Emmett along on his rampage too, didn't he?"

"N-no…" The blue haired male replied hastily, chuckling a bit, "I volunteered…"

"Emmy, you know you don't have to stick up for-"

"Don't you have something to do?" Pete interjected, directing his stare towards the females, one of whom cowered in fear.

"Right, right…" Ro giggled, turning her direction towards the girls as well, "You know you can't rush perfection."

"I'm not ru-"

"ANYWAY, I think if you want to get some answers," Ro held out her hand tossing her long pink ponytail back with her opposite hand. "You should come with us. And don't worry; I won't allow that red and white monstrosity over there lay a finger on you."

"You're testing me Rosa."

"Calmness Pete. Remember, deep breaths."

Chantal's lips seemed to crane over to the right side of her face towards Bonnie, though the rest of her face remained unchanged, "Bonnnnnniieee... the witch is scarier than the candy cane and the blue jayyyy.." She whispered in hush, thinking herself too quiet to accurately hear.

Contrarily, one of Rosa's closed eyes seemed to twitch at the brow, her kind smile replaced with an annoyed one.

"Hey Ro, calmness," Pete repeated with a smirk, his arms folded, "Remember, deep breaths."

"Oh no…" Emmett griped, cringing with one eye slightly narrowing in concern, "She's mad."

"Let her be."

"Peter, you aren't helping."

"I had already told her th-"

"Not now, Pete," Rosa's voice was now almost strained as she still managed to maintain that kind tone of voice as she severed he and Emmett's conversation. Opening her eyes, one could notice a sudden sharpness in them, and said sharpness caused Bonnie to almost immediately yelp at notice of their sudden intimidation effect.

Chantal, on the other hand, well, this just managed to make her keep her lips buttoned.

"You honestly can't say I didn't try." Rosa's smile curled up into a smirk, much to everyone's dismay.

'_I've got a bad feeling about this...' _Bonnie's breathing started to take a turn for the worst as she started to look around frantically. Spotting a door behind the two, the female continued to look around as if she hadn't seen anything, but that nonchalance was difficult to keep hidden from the friend that knew her so well.

As a result, Chantal inconspicuously began to try tracing her friend's line of sight, but suddenly, Bonnie's hand was fastened around her arm, and she proceeded to drag the brunette along.

Bonnie proceeded to swing the alternative exit ajar, bolting out of the room and into the unknown, "RUN!" She yelled, not willing to drag Chantal down the length of the enormous hallway.

"Again?!" The command was nightmarsh to said Chantal, and with a clearly annoyed expression, she began to sprint. She sighed heavily and overdramatically as she managed to keep up, "Damn you, Bonnie! Damn you and your ideas!"

Unfortunately for the duo, they didn't manage to get very far, before a far unlucky trip sent the leading black haired girl airborne. Had it not been for her arms instinctively coming out in front of her, she would have fallen face first, but regardless of how she stopped, she continued to go sliding across the tiled floor until she came to a gradual stop.

"Oof!" Chantal huffed, sliding across the floor in repetitive rotations like some sort of throwing star. Slowly sitting up, she rubbed at her nose. She hadn't been lucky enough to stop herself from going in head first... Call it poor reaction.. or the fact that Bonnie had previously been in possession of her arm.

"Ow..." Turning back, the two had found one more young man, about the size of the first two, with the only difference being his shoulder length dark green hair. He was sitting on the floor, and leaning against the wall, and to be frank, looked as though he had been taking a nap, "You... tripped over me..." Lulling his head over to the side, the male opened his tired eyes, revealing a light hazel.

"Hey, Matt!" Came the sound of Rosa, the girl from before. She stuck her body outside the door from which they had escaped, "Catch 'em!"

Peering over to the girls, the male, who was apparently known as Matt, stood, easily towering over the two, "Sure..." He said with a stifled yawn, shaking his head a tad in order to ward away any sleep still in his eyes.

"Ehh..eh.." Chantal murmured to herself, her eyes pretty wide whilst staring at this sleepy skyskraper. Her eyes were a little glazed because of the way they caught the light, forcing her pupils to shrink into near nonexistant dots, a real look of despair, "Holy.. SHIT! This place has walking candy canes, Blue Hulks, Pink witches, _AND_ Zombies!" Latching onto Bonnie, her mind seemed to unintentionally lean to her repaying the debts she found herself in after her friend's assistance in their last daring escape. She stepped one foot up, then immediately dashed forward, Bonnie flying behind her like a ragdoll. Her goal was to trample over this Matt guy!

And her goal.. Was immediately shut down. It seemed like running even in the general _direction_ of this man was a mistake all in itself, for as soon as he hit the floor, he rolled backwards, simultaneously snagging each female around the waist area, then standing. This showed his approaching teammates, that he had caught them, not only caught them, but severed their physical ties to one another, having Bonnie at his right hip, and Chantal at his left.

"Good going, Matt!" Rosa cheered, whilst jogging lightheartedly over. "Better than some others," She slyly added.

"Yea," Pete calmly smiled, his anger subsiding, "Not like the witch over there."

"Watch it, Pete!"

"On another note," Emmett interrupted the incoming argument with a question of his own, "Now what?"

"Ah, that's right…Ozpin didn't give us any instructions, did he?" Rosa cocked her hip to the side, tilting her chin up with her thumb as her eyes went upward in thought.

Tipping her head slightly backwards, the brown haired female watched their celebration and regrouping with wide eyes. She had been forced to realize that the game of hide and seek had come to a -for she and Bonnie-, quite unfortunate ending. The break from running and hiding was welcomed, sure, but it was also understandably nerve-wracking. They had been caught, and the game was now over. So she and Bonnie, were now helplessly at the mercy of these people, as well as whatever terrible plans they had in mind for them.

The last resort idea came into play. It would be a last ditch effort, the sure fire way to get them off the hook! "Ozpin! _Sure_!" She drawled out in bitter sarcasm, "You sick.. COSPLAYERS!" Immediately after the release of the last syllable, her head slammed directly up, crashing into the jawline of her captive while her canines dug into his shoulder with all the bite force she could manage!

The green haired male's head tipped slightly upwards, before he felt the slightest pain in his shoulder. Regardless, there came no release. He simply looked down sluggishly to Chantal with a raised brow. The bite had barely even dented his skin, much less caused any real damage, and one could even say the pain wasn't even there, rather just an unexpected event causing frets in his nerves -which was probably the only reason he felt anything at all-.

Chantal seemed to take the brunt of that, actually. Her attempts to hurt him only resulted in her now hanging slumped over with little dizzy swirls in her eyes, "Oww..." So much for a sure fire way.

From there, Bonnie upheld her part by thrashing in his arms, trying to find some sort of loose spot, or weak link, but alas, it was a fixed, iron grip, and he didn't seem to show signs of letting go any time soon. "We..." Bonnie sniffled, the despair evident in her voice, "We're screwed..."

"Don't think that way.." Coaxed the dizzy Chantal, who had her shoulders now hunched in partial resignation, "We won't let them kill us, right?"

"Kill?" The pinkette's hand rose to her mouth, a shocked countenance becoming present. Immediately, she looked to her dual hair-colored comrade accusingly, "Pete! What did you say to these poor girls?!"

"What?!" Pete flinched from the girl's abrupt change in attitude, even to go as far as to take a step back, "I-I didn't say-"

"No wonder they ran!" Rosa continued, leaning over to him with her wrists against her hips, "What is _wrong_ with you? Jeez, you just wanted to scare them that much?"

"I didn't say anything about killing them!" He retorted back in annoyance. Clearly, she was blaming him for something he had no knowledge of, "They're the ones that came to that conclusion. I didn't do a thing."

"I beg to differ."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That I beg to differ!" Rosa went on, "What, don't you understand now? Just where could they even get the idea that we'd kill 'em?"

'_From the I.D. channel...?'_ Chantal trailed quietly in her mind, uttering a quiet, throat-clearing sound as she drew her attention away from the pink versus red and white bickering just affront them.

"Like I know," Pete retorted.

"It seems that we've come to a sort of...misunderstanding."

At once, the bickering students, as well as the rest in earshot, turned to a familiar voice. The one that had spoken that sentence was a silver haired man, whom'd began to walk to the six while sipping his trademarked coffee. He had a rather calm demeanor, despite all that had just transpired.

"Professor!" Rosa beamed happily, grinning at the man.

'_So.. ID channel was wrong..'_ Mentally trained Chantal, a nervous twitch in her lips as she piqued them, '_Or hunt us down and kill us like some kind of Saw movie...Well I can hear the jackass honking in the distance..' _ She murmured in thought, thinking of the Spongebob episode when one could hear the screeching donkey that was used to subliminally refer to Squidward as a jackass. She wouldn't come out and say it, but she did feel a little idiotic. Her head turned to this 'professor' man, who now, not only bore such an uncanny resemblance to Ozpin, but also his title. She quietly huffed out a sigh to herself, but despite her slight rage, her body had began to lose its built up tension.

"Perhaps it would be best if we discussed this in a more...secure setting," The professor noted, referencing to the open hallways with his cane as he sipped his coffee.

"Of course, sir," Emmett agreed, prompting Pete to fold his arms with that seemingly permanent scowl making a comeback. The white and red haired male walked forward, passing all except their 'instructor', whom had, of course, taken the lead.

"Agh!" Bonnie finally uttered, yelling in discomfort as the green haired carrier shifted to walk with the rest of the group, "Could you.. let us down?" She inquired.

Matt paused for a moment, soon placing the pleading girl unto her feet. As for Chantal, well it seemed she wasn't so lucky.

Of course, she rebeled against the unfair treatment, said unlucky soul glancing up to him as well, "Us..? She said us...? So could you maybe set me down too?" She prodded, nudging him with her elbow whilst flashing a jovial grin, "Yes? No? Yes again?"

Rosa seemed to take this answer, a smirk sharply casting its way towards the pleading female, "And have you run off?" It seemed she wasn't quite forgiving her for the witch remark, "Look, squirt, It's better this way."

"Squirt," The brunette repeated the words of the pinkette, yet in a much more amused tone than the latter, "Nice wit." She was murmuring disinterestedly, but finding herself defeated, practically tossed herself limply over Matt's arm limply, pulling the dead-weight routine.

"That's better," Quipped Rosa, placing her hands at the back of her head in a leisurely fashion.

As the six of them entered the unknown room, what they found, was an office of sorts. It was a wide open room with gear-like ornaments strewn around the interior and perimeter.

"Ah..." Unfortunately, Bonnie's stomach had began to flip-flop once again, finally realizing the severity of the situation, "This isn't my house..." She murmured softly.

Knowing full-well that her friend had, what she called, a slow reaction time, Chantal, who was looking at Bonnie from upside down in Matt's grip, casually threw in, "I thought we figured that out like.. a forever ago."

"No..." She explained, as 'Ozpin' took a seat on the gear-themed chair, "I mean... I need to go home.. Like now.."

By this point, the room's occupants had began to put themselves into order. Matt set Chantal down, and took his place with the rest of the students, whom had arranged themselves affront the door -probably in case the two had another escape idea-.

The now-seated brunette was beginning to feel a little more comfortable, knowing that her life was not to be endagered. It allowed her to lesiurely allow more of her usual personality to come seeping through the cracks of her built up wall. She swiveled around in the chair like an impatient child, "Well yeah..." That's when realization came into play. See, she knew that Bonnie wasn't exactly allowed to go off wandering and covorting about after school with complete strangers... Well, neither was she, but still! "Oh shit! You're right! You're gonna get in TROUBLE! Like T-R-O-U-"

"It's not like you didn't plan this!" Bonnie's voice went up equally in volume, as well as in octave. She was frustrated, and that was obvious, since this was her first time really being outside in years -other than school or lawn mowing. "This isn't funny, Chan... I've got to go home... and explain this to my dad..." She clearly wasn't willing to leave as much anymore, knowing what would be in store for her when she arrived back home, "I don't know what you did.. but if you could undo it, the-"

"ME?" The opposing party's voice shot up as well on the scale, only to fall back down into a calmer tone, "Let's be real here, Bon." She began pulling one leg up to fold over the other and intertwine her fingers over her chest, whilst she took on a therapist look, "I've done from pretty stupid stuff in my life.." An interrogative look developed, "but as amazing as I am... I can't Build a GIANT BUILDING. IN LESS THAN AN HOUR. THEN KIDNAP YOU WITHOUT A CAR!"

"I mean, it wouldn't be the first unreasonable thing you've ever done," Bonnie shot back, "Your parents let you do practically everything! So you saw me outside of my house, and waited until I had my headphones to start playing Mirror Mirror-"

"Wait wait," Holding her hand up, Bonnie closed her eyes, nodding with that solid psychologist look, "Mirror Mirror, you say..?"

"Yea... You know. You-"

"That's a coinky-dink!"

Bonnie could only stare at her brown haired companion; a dull expression clouded over her face, "Is it...?"

"Well, yeah see," She began, tapping her chin, "Before I came here, I was sleeping...Well, I was sleeping when I first came here too, but that's not the point." She turned her head to glance up to the ceiling, "I disntinctly recall hearing the tune to I Burn... but here I was thinking I had just listened to it too much before going to sleep... Either that, or it just popped on, since y'know, I usually stick my playlist on shuffle."

"I Burn..." Bonnie repeated, pondering over the subject for a moment. Finally gathering her thoughts together, the black haired girl's dark colored eyes widened significantly, "Those spirals I fell into... that's when I landed...I-" The young female was interrupted by a futuristic looking device shoved at her by a purple nail-painted hand. Looking up to see that Rosa was the owner, Bonnie took to staring at the device in her hands in awe, "This...looks like a Scroll."

"Well, that's because it is," They heard Pete reply from the door.

Bonnie ignored him, placing her index finger over the diamond, just like she had seen before. The holographic tablet, however, did not seem to respond to her touch, thus making her tap it a number of times.

"Hey!" Rosa snatched the Scroll from the girl, a firm frown on her face, "Don't break it! These things cost a lot!" With a feather-light tap from her, the Scroll opened, revealing what seemed like an e-mail page. The only problem was, that it was blank.

"Ah..." Bonnie started, "What-" At that moment, the file labeled 'MSG' -likely for messaging- began to type in a number of letters, forming words on the device, "Nevermind..."

Chantal, whom had surprisingly enough, kept quiet, decided she would need to feed her curiosity. For that reason, she pressed her arms onto the arm of the chair in which she sat, hovering over Bonnie's shoulder to see the screen for herself.

_Hello Ozpin_, The message formed_, In three days time, you will have two young ladies arriving in one hour intervals. You will train them, perfect them, and turn them into excellent Huntresses. Make no mistake; these girls will be as mystified as you currently are, meaning prying answers from them will be useless, for they will not know. _

That one line she read, beginning at the third line, caused Chantal to shoot a glare over to Pete, "Yeah...Getting answers from us is pointless.." She murmured to herself underbreathed, not to mention cursing him with a colorful vocabulary in addition to it. She turned her head back to read the rest.

_They must hone their craft for the upcoming Beacon Academy entrance exams. There, they will become students; a team. _

To be a huntress... The brunette felt.. Exhilarated! Should she be? Or.. Should she have been afraid.. Maybe a mix of both? The tingling sensation bursting in her chest pushed the corners of her lips up into a smile. She just had the amazing inclination that something wonderful was about to happen! It was hard to understand, but she just knew it would be great!

Bonnie was a little less excited. Being a Huntress, it really sounded amazing! But with that thrill of the strength one possessed, there was also a great danger regarding life. It was a chance of risking life every day. '_If someone like me would even think about being something as cool as a Huntress...'_ Bonnie thought, her eyes becoming more clouded with negative thoughts that stemmed from deep down in that same pool of pessimism from before, '_I'd be dead before I could even say 'oops' ' _ At that point, there was only one thing the girl could say; the number one reason that all of this was just not possible.

"My dad would kill me..." She uttered, not even thinking twice about the decision, "I really don't think-" She was about to go on about how they wouldn't be needing someone like her, and likewise, Chantal was about to protest the exact opposite, but the motions of her Scroll seemed as though it were set to type another message.

_Why hello ladies._

_'Why hello you worthless piece of human trash'. _Bonnie bitterly narrowed her eyes at the faceless culprit who nearly gave her and her friend heart attacks.

"Holy Shit, it's talking to us," Chantal breathily spoke, heart pounding with a thumping of bundled nerves.

_I can only except that you all are wondering why you are here. _

"Could you?" Bonnie voiced her annoyance openly, placing the Scroll on her lap and folding her arms. She just would never have guessed.

"Bonnie..." Cautioned her brunette companion, reaching down to gently pat the shoulder she was hovering over, "You're talking to a typing virus... Let's not go crazy here, because I doubt they have medication for insanity.."

"I doubt viruses are this advanced…"

"Well, it's typing by itself through a device that's more high tech than ours, so that's a start," Scoffed Chantal, reaching over to her pocket, "I mean, look at this old phon-.." Her hands hastily swiveled to her other pocket, and her head then drew back away from peering over Bonnie's shoulder, "Look at this.. old.." She repeated, patting her pockets again as she seemed to pale, "This old Phone.. Where.. is my phone.."

"Maybe you left it home before we got-" Bonnie's words tripped off by Peter's throat clearing resulted the topic to be dropped, "Yea..."

Sensing the intimidating attempt the candycane was attempting, Chantal complied with the topic drop, assuming her phone was, as Bonnie said, just forgotten, but she wouldn't let him get away with that rude throat clearing! She turned her head back to him and let her tongue roll and stand to flick at him in a spiteful manner. It seemed, of the two, that she was becoming the least afraid of him, probably thanks to that safety barrier she'd just been informed they had. Speaking of which, "What did the typing virus say?" She questioned afterwards, racing back to her perch at Bonnie's shoulder, to peer at the Scroll.

_Firstly, I would like to inform you that while you are here, the time and ages in your world will remain the same._

Was... that a good thing? Chantal seemed a bit on edge about that one; or maybe just confused with the mechanics. Her mind always did get easily wrapped but by those dimensional and time-changing quirks... And she wasn't really up for being her own grandma. Maybe this was a con...

"Holy Elsword and thank the heavens…" Bonnie sputtered in relief, clutching her gym shirt at the center of her chest while letting out a pent up breath of tension. Bonnie seemed to think it was a pro.

_You are 'here,' for no real reason. You may just be the best RWBY fans in need of a more... hands on experience. Perhaps you are here to see if you could survive this world, or how long you actually could. Or maybe you were brought here to set things right. Who really knows?_

_'Possibly the one who kidnapped us here!?' _The black haired female almost exploded in frustration. "What in all of Elsword's name makes this think that we'll actually believe we're in RWBY?" She hissed in a whisper to her friend.

Chantal, upon hearing her words, reeled back to her own chair, giving a dull glance in her direction, as though processing her thoughts, "You still don't believe it?" Usually, she herself, was quite stubborn, but even she had sort of come to terms with the fact that all of this couldn't just be some well-thought out shirade. Well.. Even if on the off-chance, this was a shirade.. There was one thing that they couldn't build from the ground up. That would be the proof she'd use to sway Bonnie! Looking up to Ozpin -despite despising even the real.. fake.. whatever version it was of him-, and passed a solemn look, "Can you.. take us outside?"

Ozpin stayed generally neutral, only gesturing to the four students that Chantal and Bonnie had given the run-around earlier while taking another sip of his coffee.

With that, Pete sighed as he turned his gaze away from Ozpin, and onto the two females, a familiar scowl on his face. Clearly, he wasn't too fond of them, nor was he afraid to show it.

The scowl he passed them lit up Chantal's inner fire, and she carried a smug-like smirk followed by that taunting tongue once again. She even went as far as to have the audacity to flip him off with both hands moving up and down in a rhythmic, dance-like fashion. Hopefully no one else saw that, or her image would go down the drain.. not that she cared.

He managed to ignore that, "Come with me," Was all that he said as he opened the door, and walked out of the room. The other three opted to stay behind in the office.

"Come with me," Chantal mouthed the words, while standing straight up and stiff. She carried a scowl that matched Pete, showing that she was clearly mocking him from behind, where he couldn't be bothered to see. Afterwards, she broke into laughter, simultaneously grabbing Bonnie's arm.

Feeling her arm snagged, Bonnie grabbed the Scroll at the last minute, bringing it to herself as Chantal began to drag her out of the room.

The brunette chirpily called back to her as they exited through the threshold, "Let's hurry up, you know this uptight guy's got a candy cane stuck up his a-"

"You might not want to push your luck," Rosa called after them, an amused kind of tone lingering in her voice, before it was snuffed out by the sound of the office door closing behind them.

Chantal didn't seem to heed her words, although anyone could tell the brunette that it would probably be wise to. Instead, she traveled out through the door that Peter had opened for them and motioned for them to exit out of. Behind her, she still tugged Bonnie.

See, Bonnie was not too much of an outside person. Although she would have liked to be, she had developed the preference of being an insider. With Chantal pulling her outside, however, she hadn't much of a choice in the matter.

It was a clear day, and the sky was nice.

Chantal released Bonnie from her grip, and she took to admiring her surroundings. She had to say, it was much clearer than back home. She wasn't judging on the number of clouds out and about -although there were few-, but rather, more so on the vivid color that splayed out over the horizon line in an unmatchable blue. The grass was green, of course, and everything seemed... logically normal -aside from the tall buildings that made up Beacon's Campus dotting the land out affront them. That was mainly what Chantal was focused on. There were huge towers and such, winding sidewalks, and even far off, to what seemed like the middle of the campus, there was the fountain that stood just affront the status in all its glorious stoicism. She lived in such a small area.. A place so tiny that a raccoon could make the front page... To think that she was basking in this beautiful urban setting, filled with wonders that she never thought, in all her life, that she would be seeing.

"Wow..." She trailed, mouth falling agape. Architecturally, environmentally.. It was just beautoful! She fell backwards into the grass with a thud, "That's it.. We're here!" She believed it now, even if she claimed to have believed it before, her ideals were solidified, "We're really here! I completely believe it!" Her hands came up, lightly coiled fists pressing against her eyes, as though she were ridding herself of any water that swelled in her eyes, "Hi, Beacon!" Such an opportunity! Such a place to live! Freedom! Complete freedom! What more could a 15 year old girl ask for?!

Bonnie, was up for more pressing matters. While her friend collapsed back into the grass the way she had, the black haired girl was taking in the scent of the air.

"What...are you doing?" Peter asked the dark haired female, a critical tone in his voice at the bizarre nature of her actions.

This caused an immediate halt in Bonnie's actions, and she, not looking at either of the two, took a deep breath.

"What…are you doing?" Pete asked the black haired young lady. Immediately, Bonnie stopped in her tracks, not looking to either of the two as she took a deep breath.

"N-ah...I-It's nothing.." She stammered nervously, though tried desperately not to, "It's just...the air." The air she had smelled in this new place had been much more pure and clean than back home, that it was incredibly easy to smell the difference. Such air could have been anywhere in the world, as a result of the excessive pollution, or at least.. Not anywhere in _their_ world. With that, she felt a knot form in her stomach, before something in her hand uttered an electronic beeping sound.

"Huhm?" Hearing the beeps, Chantal tipped her head back to look up at Bonnie from the ground, "What's that?"

Bonnie looked at the Scroll she had taken with her. It was still opened, and the girl took a look at it, only to find one sentence, and one sentence only, before it shut itself down completely.

_Well ladies, enjoy your little taste of freedom._

**A/N:**

**Santa: I'm gonna so gonna enjoy my freedom.. I'm gonna enjoy it HARDCORE. *Dawns my shades***

**Chained: Ah…too much freedom can be a very bad thing…especially for someone like you…**

**Santa: *Already breaking windows with a baseball bat* Huh what? I CAN GOVERN MYSELF! *Foams at the mouth***

**Chained: Ah…don't do drugs kids… ya might end up like her…**

**Santa: *Hisses like a Spider Demon and grabs Bonnie by the leg* I WILL DEVOUR YOUR SOU-..Oh.. *Looks at viewers* ... :3 Love you, Snowflakes! I'll cya next time! *Drags Bonnie underground into the blazing hellfires***


	4. Training Montage De PERM

**A/N: Woop woop! This chapter is more of a training montage. Just shows you what kind of horrible torture we have faced since arriving to Beacon.. **

**Santa: *On the ground, reaching up, covered in bruises and blood* It's cold.. Need food.. Need water.. Death is upon me...Agh.**

**Chained: The end is nigh! Ugh…why'd I quote something like that…? Minus points to whoever figured out that quote… here's another hint: The occult is bull crap! Minus points! You don't have to tell me… you know who you are…**

**Santa: Oh. I get bonus points.. because I don't know. :D! Whelp! *Shakes off the makeup and ketchup* Read on, dear Snowflakes!**

"Alright," Began that familiar red and white haired man. His voice was dripping irritation, but then, when was it not? "We start now."

Bonnie looked to this male, who was known as Peter Pipermen, the male that seemed to have his arms folded even in this moment.

He never bothered to look at the two, rather, he glanced over to the school instead. after the commotion of the other day had died down, the young females had the situation explained to them. Apparently, these four students: Rosa, Matthew, Emmett, and Peter, had been outlined as a few of the most reliable students in Beacon. Even though they were only second years, they outclassed even some of the seniors. Their task, had been to bring the two 'mysterious new students' that the 'typing virus' had spoken of, to Professor Ozpin, should they arrive. However, with one Bonnie out cold, and one Chantal asleep on arrival, it was needless to say that all did not go as planned, especially with false accusations that the latter of the two had started bellowing out. In the end, the whole situation, which was meant to be a tranquil adjustment, was thrown into chaos. Luckily, with everything being sorted out, the girls were briefed on what exactly was to occur in their tentative stay at Beacon Academy.

Firstly, they were to be trained immediately by these four students, who incidentally, were a team by the name of Permanent, or PERM for short. They were well on their way to being top team in the academy, plus had already been acquainted with the two, so who better to train them until the entrance exams rolled around?

A bit ago, measured in a span of days, the two new arrivals had been given an isolated dorm room to stay in, away from any students, so that they would in turn avoid any rising questions. The teachers, however, were informed of their presence, and updated on the situation as a whole. The professors, actually, would aid in the lesson teachings, cramming all of this information in their heads to try getting them on par with future Beacon freshman, while team PERM handled the rest.

On top of the cramming and lessons forced on their shoulders, everything all in itself was going to take some getting used to; and adjustments. Having to relax into a routine and adjust to the differences in this new place was a little difficult, but it seemed they would have to take their time and begin to come to terms with it.

Chantal raised her hand, prompting a question that followed Peter's statement.

On this day, at 6AM on the dot, the sun was just beginning to rise, tinting the area with an orange color. A pretty sight. It was nice and comfortable, not too warm or too cool; like mid-spring weather. While a welcoming combination of weather and events it was, the brunette was curious as to why they were standing at the top of a hill, just outside of the city's center, and why they were mainly in a pair of sweatpants-like get ups and tanktops. She half-expected this to be some sort of 'Eye of the Tiger' kind of climbing Pyramids thing.

"Mister Peter Piper," Began the brown haired female, "Why are we here?" The last few days had been a comfortable grace period filled with sleeping on plush beds, and sampling their food, which had been a tranquil experience, but maybe it had spoiled them just a bit.

"Hah..." Bonnie fought the urge to laugh at her companion's joke, instead focusing on the double knot she had tied her slightly oversized summer jacket in around her waist. Luckily, she had stopped herself from laughing just in time, as she could disguise her quiet snicker under the cover of an exhale of breath. She was glad she did, because looking up to Peter, she noticed his gritted teeth by the way his jaw positioned itself, signaling that his irritation was getting more and more severe with each passing second.

"As you both know," He continued, likely opting to answer Chantal's question in a further explanation, rather than blatantly addressing it, "I'm required to train you in strength and stamina." He now had his back turned to the girls, but shifted his head to peer over his shoulder at them, a surprisingly serene look over his features, "Now look out there." He turned his head back forward, gesturing to the distance of Vale.

Chantal was the first volunteer, and she bounded up to glance out into the distance. It was a small, shopping district like sectional of Vale; which seemed perfect if he had any training in mind. A long stretch of street that seemed completely untouched by any form of transportation that was common back in their own world. Out in the distance, beyond the street, diverged two paths that seemed to run directly into the Sunset. Cheesy? Perhaps, but it couldn't have been more true. Any normal person would have been captivated by its exuded beauty, reeled in by the divine blending of colors that mixed together in perfect unison and harmony! Stunned into silence by its-

"Yeah? It's really pretty and really empty," Chantal trailed, turning back to Peter after the brief glance to and from the scenery, "What about it?"

"How does it look?" Peter further questioned.

Chantal folded her arms across her chest, a pouting face coming over her, '_Hey what gives.. Didn't I just answer that..?' _

"Ah..." Bonnie stood in uncertainty. She wasn't exactly sure how to answer that question. After all, Peter may have been calm at the moment, but there was always calm before the storm. Looking out into the distance, she could hear the sound of bells above the entrances of shops ring throughout the area, and some of those shops obstructed from their view as a result of a few ongoing hills here and there. Nevertheless, unlike her friend, it was really something like a dream to her- and she wouldn't be surprised it was one, with consideration to the time, "It'.. looks...really nice..."

"How long do you think it runs exactly?"

Chantal drew her head back in response to that one, a skeptical look appearing over her face as she furrowed a brow. "The Hell kind of question is that...?" She thought to herself aloud though underbreathed.

Bonnie, when Peter turned his attention away from her, took her hand, placing it at the front of her forehead and tilting her torso slightly towards the district while her right leg was slightly out in the opposite direction. So she was actually going to make the attempt to answer this then. A nervous knot twisted in the pit of her stomach, for some reason, but she answered anyway, "About...and I'm not very good at measuring.." She warned beforehand, urging justification lest her prediction be incorrect, "Five...miles or something?"

"Seven," Peter corrected, doing nothing but lowering the girl's confidence by a fraction of a margin and tightening the knot in her stomach. That's when the the game-changer came into play, "And you're going to run it."

Yanking her head around in a snapping motion, Chantal's eyes seemed to bug out of her head. As much running as she faced a few days ago, and as much of a love-hate relationship as she and running had.. he was now forcing her to run!? It was probably for his own enjoyment! Freaking sadist! "Seven miles.." She trailed, snapping her head up, "Are you KIDDING Me?!"

"Seven?" Peter asked, looking to her with a surprised countenance, while trying but failing to hide the growing smirk on his face, "Of course not."

Bonnie's eyebrow raised a fraction of an inch, her paranoia not allowing her to believe that he was suddenly changing his mind.

The brunette's brow twitched up as well. He was contradicting himself... What did he meant by this? "...But you just said.."

"She," He jerked his thumb over to Bonnie, showing that she was the 'she' he was referencing, "Will be running seven. You'll be running 14," He clarified, that smirk on his face now in plain view, "As in there and back."

The unfair treatment towards her was a shot in the chest, and she was set to protest. In fact, that chestnut haired girl's jaw dropped until it metaphorically smacked the pavement, "OH." She wanted to protest. She really wanted to.. but she knew that with just another word, he could double that, maybe even triple! "Oh...Y-Yeah..14.." She trailed, nodding her head whilst feigning a soft smile for the camera, '_FREAKING SADIST!'_ "I'll just get started on that.." As soon as her back was turned to him, a dark scowl draped over her face.

"And since you just '_love'_ that word so much..." The red and white haired male added with a sneer.

"What w-"

Cutting off Chantal's question with an answer, Peter continued, "You'll be saying piper while you run. No breaks."

As the black haired female took her place beside her friend, she couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy towards her, "Don't worry.." She whispered, reassuring both Chantal and herself, "I'll run the 14 with you."

"Did I ever tell you that you..." Chantal began, sounding quiet and broken, though rising in a tone that gave the impression that she would be throwing loads of honor to Bonnie. Then, that tone just abruptly fell, "ARE CRAZY!" She finished loudly. The girl turned her head towards Bonnie, a large, goofy grin on her face, "Don't run with me, you'll die with me! Then who's gonna cuase these dummies some good trouble?" She turned her head back to Peter as she uttered the last word, then turned back to her friend with a curved, Cheshire grin, "Besides, if I'm gonna have to run and say _that_ of all things.. I'm gonna have fun with it!" She hopped up at attention, throwing her head back some as she shouted into the distance, "PA-PA-PA-PA-PIPPPPPEEEEEEERRRRRRR!"

To that, Peter had to utter a soft humming sound in amusement, glancing over at the girls, he thought back to the commotion that they -well, mostly Chantal- had caused, '_There's no brat left behind with these two, is there?' _ It was actually a trait they shared that he seemed to be a little fond of. Dismisisng his thoughts, he raised his hand for a moment, before dropping it, "Start."

~...~...~...~...~...~

"Pi..Pii... Pippy Long Stockings... Pip.. er.. Piper Peter..Pipe.. pipe pipe..." Through each syllable, before, during, and after as well, Chantal -who was currently laid flat out on the floor, chest heaving and body violently shaking, with sweat pouring off of her like waterfalls-, was breathing shallow, sharp breaths, though still trying to fulfill the task given to her, "Pip..er.." They had been back at Beacon for what seemed like at least an hour now -though was only about half of that-, after hours of running, but it made no difference. The exaughstion was real, "Piper.. Pip...er.. Piper.." And she had yet to quit her husky chants.

"D-d...done..." Bonnie breathed heavily. Unlike Chantal, Bonnie was less out of breath, as a result of the lack of chanting and the small bit of exercise she actually did accomplish in her gym class back home. She had her knees and hands on the ground, hunkered over while sitting on her legs, and having her upper body tipping forward. Her face, as well as everywhere else, was heavily dripping sweat. The girl liked walking, but the Hell they were put through just then... that was on a whole different level. She did, however, catch her breath enough to at least express her distaste of both her smell, and layers of liquid naturally cooling her body down, "H-How...unattractive..."

"Huh..." Peter raised an eyebrow at the two friends, his arms crossed like usual as he looked down on them. His right hand held a peculiar-looking crossbow, the same crossbow he had used as his 'motivator' if he noticed them slowing or stopping, "We'll need to increase your speed. This'll build your endurance and stamina."

"Was our speed..." Bonnie coughed, slightly peering up to the male from between her lifted shoulders, which were nearly quaking from fatigue, "Not good enough...?"

"Our speed ...w-was fine," Chantal scoffed, though needed to take a moment to regulate her heavy intakes of air, "B..but it probably.. would have b...been...alot...sm-smoother..." She took another pause, practically gasping, "Had.. you not chased us down with those.. d-damned exploding.. arrows." She looked up, not exactly able to muster one of her usually strong glares, "Damn it...G-Glad it's...all over..We can go rest now..right?"

"Yeah..." Hearing the first word escape Peter's lips cast an extremely positive light on Peter in Bonnie's eyes. Still, there was a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that told them they couldn't rest, lest they fall behind their grade level.

"No," Hearing this sudden addition to his previous reply come from Peter's lips turned the tables for both sets of emotions. It not only made that light that once shined onto the mentor crack and shatter, but also the negative feeling turn tail and leave as well, "It's only 8:30. We've got the whole day ahead of us."

"I was hoping.. You wouldn't say that..." Groaned Chantal. Slowly, she pushed herself up into a sitting position, legs crossed in an indian style seating, and her hands tucked in her lap, "So what then..?"

"Next," Peter replied, turning to the school, and not even bothering to assist either of the girls in returning to their feet, "You learn."

~.~~~~~~.~~~~.~~~~~~~.

"Hello..." Emmett began awkwardly, taking notice of the sluggishness that expelled from the two females, both of whom sat on the floor in the training room at an isolated part of the school, "My...name is Emmett Mintrail... and I'll be teaching both of you today."

"Teaching...?" Bonnie began, almost unnoticeably tilting her head to the side, "About...what..?"

"Aura, Semblance, Weapons, and things of that nature," His eyes lit up as he spoke, not that Bonnie minded. So far, Emmett was the most passive compared to Peter and Rosa, while Matthew was asleep for the duration of their stay. Clearly, the blue haired male was excited to teach, and probably passionate about the topics, and the black haired girl had no reason not to listen. She did _love_ the RWBY world, even going as far as going to the library to read about various things and events during their grace period.

"Semblance, Aura, Weapons," Chantal nodded absent-mindedly, only repeating what had been said so that she could sound as though she understood. After all, of the entirety of season one that had been released -that being 10 episodes-, she had only watched up to about episode five. Not exactly enough to get as solid an understanding as Bonnie. "That sounds wonderful," She chimed in somewhat relief, "So you're just gonna lecture us right?" Being that she was confident in her memory; she was happy knowing that not much effort would need to be exerted if there was only a lecture to pay heed to.

"Lecturing?" Emmett repeated back to her in the form of a question, tapping his chin with a finger, and slightly raising a brow, "No...I don't think that's a very effective way to learn at all..."

With that, Bonnie sighed, looking the other way for what seemed like a split second.

Chantal, on the other hand, started burrying her face into her hands, "Well, what _DO_ you do?" She questioned through muffled speech.

Without a moment's notice, a large slam and the undeniable sound of paper was brought before the girls.

Turning in panic, Bonnie was alerted by a questionable amount of books she had recognized from the library, though she was too intimidated from the size alone to even think of picking them up.

"BOOKS?" Chantal suddenly shouted, being forced to throwing herself back up in a sitting position from the alarming sound of their booming weight against the floor.

The blue haired male nodded, "This is Volume One," He trailed happily, picking up one of the books from the stack that easily made a dictionary look like a simple poem.

"Out of…" Bonnie trailed in inquiry, referring to the number of collective volumes in the set.

"Seventeen."

"I...i-in all of Elsword's name..." She sputtered, wondering in her heart why all of the things she loved were being turned against her.

Chantal stayed notably wound in silence. Her hands coiled up and fingers cringing in towards her hands with a sickening cracking sound -that came from her knuckles-, "You're freaking joking..."

"Hey, Ment," Peter called from the end of the room, a both familiar and uninviting sneer graced on his lips, "The volumes they aren't reading yet," He trailed, tossing a glance over to his teammate, "Make 'em carry it."

"What the...!" The brunette gaped, breaking her orginal stress pose and slamming her hands on the ground. Clearly, she was frustrated, or maybe a trifle annoyed with this mistreatment. Back home, this was be the equivalent of child labor!

Bonnie was close to turning completely pale, ignoring the fact that her dark skin barely registered color, before she calmed down a bit. '_It's Emmett...'_ She thought, attempting to reassure herself, '_There's no way someone like hi-'_

"That _does_ seem pretty efficient..." Emmett regretfully pondered over the idea, soon grinning and turning towards the dreading females, "Alright, you heard the man. Let's have some fun!"

Fun! Right! It was fun for them to see them in pain! Chantal was sure of this. She clenched her fists and teeth together, whilst a fire burned in her chocolate-brown eyes, '_FREAKING SADISTS!'_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Last Time Skip for this Montage, I Promise ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"And here..." Matthew droned on with a yawn, "This is where they hold the Mistral regional tournaments every year..." Cue what seemed like the 77th yawn in the passed hour, as the green haired young man pointed to a section of the world Remnant with a type of holographic tool.

At once, like clockwork, the girls yawned in unison, whereas Bonnie was to the point of crying, "Please..." She begged, her eyes watering, "Please, no more..."

Chantal was just finishing up her yawn; after all, yawns were contagious, so for every one of those 77 yawns that Matthew had to let out, they seemed to reverberate in unison around the room like dominoes, "I'd rather...take another run.." She groaned afterwards, slamming her head on the desk. To think when the first yawn came around, she was expecting to have a class nap or something, or any kind of break from their training that day! Did they really expect this from them on a daily basis!?

"You should see his father," Peter laughed, clearly having the most fun out of the four present in the room. This only fueled Chantal's theory of their inner-sadistic enjoyment all the more.

Still, she found herself being baited into the comment regarding Matthew's father. "What?" She scoffed, glancing over halfway from her face -which was burried into her arms-, "Does he only wake up once a year?"

"Okay, that's enough."

As the girls turned back to the voice that had rang out, an unidentifiable noise began to ring out after. They found that Rosa's hands were rhythmically clapping as she approached the four, "Times's up Matt."

"Oh, thank Elsword..." Bonnie sighed, her head almost slamming into the desk out of relief.

Chantal bounded up to her feet, a smile on her face, "Oh, great!" Immediately, a sliver of guilt passed her by, and she turned her head to Matthew. She fast him a bright smile, one that seemed a little shaky at the corners, "I'm...not excited because that was bad or anything...I'm just tired and excited to rest is all."

"Rest?" Rosa asked innocently, despite that small glint of deviousness sparking up in her eyes, "What do you mean?"

"W-What do you mean, what do we mean...?" Bonnie stammered, her heart rate shooting up.

"Yeah.." Chantal trailed, "We..._ARE..._Resting, right?" She leaned forward over her desk slightly, her eyes seeming to narrow into a dangerous, interrogative squint.

In reply, Rosa Paréd clasped her fingers together, letting the girls realize that whenever a member or team PERM got fired up, well, it was just not a good thing.

"We're going shopping!"

**A/N: A shorter chapter for a smaller point to get across! Simple, right? This was just to set up the story; which is coming next chapter when we get to it! Yayyyy!**

**Santa: I wanna be a huntress so that I can ninja backflip into people's windows instead of coming down the chimmeny. :3**

**Chained: I have to be a Huntress to keep this broad in line…**

**Santa: D': Wow rude..**

**CYA NEXT TIME, SNOWFLAKES! Reviews.. Could you leave those? Friends. Could ya bring those? Cookies? Can you give those..?**


	5. The Prince & The Ponytail

**A/N: **

**Santa: 'Ello dearies. Welcome to the next chapter of Red Like Raspberries. I affectionately refer to it as.. Pessimist m.. Wait.. Wrong one.**

**Chained: Cheeky, real cheeky. But anywho, we hope you leave us some love by, oh I don't know…REVIEWING!? I see the status viewing! I know which ones are- *AHEM* W-we hope you enjoy!**

**Santa: O-O You've gotten bold... **

"Ugh.." A brunette stood, leaned up against the statue centering the campus of Beacon Academy. Just affront it was a large fountain that gently pooled water that poured from the top of its fixture. She paid no mind to it. Its beauty had once captivated her, but now, due to human's nature of complacency, it just looked like a common obstacle in her path, that she passed by every day. That's right, she'd had the time to become complacent with the campus, and the little things that made it up, because by this point, months upon months had passed; in fact months to a year and then some.

Bonnie and Chantal, now, had been training under Team PERM for nearly a year and a half. So it seemed, their chance drop in had occured right in the midst of their sophmore year, and now, while the two newcomers were off to take their entrance exam, PERM sat pretty with their brand new Senior status.

The good news in this, was that things had gone rather well, especially morale wise. Peter, who once hated every part of them, as well as anything they had to do with, now affectionately referred to them as Kiddo (Bonnie), and Squirt (Chantal). Matthew was Matthew, and Rosa didn't bear so much of a grudge from the witch comment... or at least not as much as she had before; In fact, she only tried to kill Chantal once a day now, rather than twelve. Their training had majorly paid off in strength,and they even got insight on the do's and don't's. The best of the best though... well that had to be that they had settled in well.

Each day had passed by like routine, as though back in the real world, and the initial shock and newness had worn off. For some, the settling in phase happened fast.. .others -who shall remain nameless-, not so much... Alright, so it was Bonnie, who after two weeks of living in Beacon, suddenly exclaimed in major excitement one morning, 'HEY! We're in the RWBY world!'.

Speaking of Bonnie, she was late...

Well not exactly late, more so she had just needed a second trip. As punctual as she was during the training season, or as dilligent as she was when it came to her studies -usually making trips upon trips to the library in their spare time-, she forgot her weapon, on the day of their new and developing Beacon lives... Ohh, typical Bonnie.. Well, it _was_ one of the reasons she was loved.

In waiting, Chantal began to pace on the narrow strip of pavement between the fountain and statue. It was clear to see that she had made quite the transformation in the passing months. Her plain, uniformed khakis and black polo shirt, had become a totally new and diverse outfit, brought about by the styling genius that was Rosa. -Though she never would have given that compliment out loud-. It was a loud, neon chartreuse vest, striped with traingular black highlights that drew into the middle from the edges. She left it unzipped, only to show the long, black shirt beneath that seemed to reach until the start of her thighs. From there, she had a sort of half and half, maybe even masculine ideal design in mind; that being her left leg having a mid-thigh length shorts-like cut, while her right leg carried the full pants look. The base color of the bottoms was black, and the highlights were neon instead, being a color scheme opposite of the vest. Strapped to her left leg, was a compact and seemingly light, black case, and strapped to her right hip, was a more rectangular carrying case. Both pieces held something related to her weapon, which both she and Bonnie had collaborated with Emmett to make.

Patience was also something that had improved. Before, she would have blown her stack by now, or started her undertoned muttering of annoyance; but pacing.. pacing was an improvement, "Oh where, oh where has my buddy gone, oh where oh where could she be..?" Chantal murmured, crossing her arms gently, a habit she had picked up from Peter. Her head tilted up to look over the hill, where their dorm was. No sign of her. Her head then turned towards the airships, which were to the right a bit. No Bonnie, but there certainly were alot of brown stalks of.. Oh wait.. that was her hair. She brushed it out of her face, never noting that it had gotten even longer than it had been before, especially around the bangs; and all this time in the sun.. It was offering the chance to darken her caramel-colored tan that she had already received from those long mornings of running -which quickly evolved into long mornings to noons of running-, but it wouldn't be too much a welcomed change, considering her wish to explore the other newcomers a bit more.

At that moment of stillness, just before she moved to return to her pacing, the upper left side of Chantal's body was pushed back with enough force to cause her to retreat a few steps backwards. She batted her slightly surprised eyes, looking straight forward to find the culprit of this ungraceful, somewhat aggressive gesture.

A male that had been passing by, all clad in black. He had been the cause, with his less-than-gentlemanly bump to her shoulder. "Watch where you're going," He snarled in the typical male voice, thus being a little deep. It was clear that this guy seemed to have a certain rude streak. He never bothered to turn around, not to see whom he had so rudely brushed aside, or anything of the sort, so it only allowed the chartreuse-dressed girl to get a glimpse of his features from behind. It looked to be a loose, black jumpsuit-type outerwear that stopped halfway at the base of his legs with -what looked like- laced black boots. The most peculiar of aspect seemed to be the low, back-length ponytail that his jet-black hair was confined to.

A first reaction from Chantal, was to shift her head to -as to confirm target-, then trail after his onwalking figure, hands outstretched in a strangling motion. However, she caught herself. She mustn't let herself just recklessly jump into some kind of altercation, no matter how much she wanted to rip that girly ponytail of his out. After all, it was just a rude act! And he must not have had any idea who he was messing with! She knew higher ups! Speaking of higher ups, she let the idea of them invade her mind for a moment, '_Calm down...Think about it, now... What would PERM do..?'_

It's like she saw an opaque, moving image of Rosa pop into her subconscious, the pinkette's hands on her hips, "_Don't rip any of your clothes, don't take disrespect and DON'T listen to Pete."_

"Don't take disrespect..." Chantal trailed in thought, feeling her body tense a bit more in compliance to her whim of smacking him with his own ponytail.

_"Punch him in the face!"_

She heard Peter's voice ring out in her mind, spurning her to start advancing closer to the retreating male's figure. She caught herself though, and drew to a sudden stop. Rosa had specifically told her NOT to listen to Peter... Even if it was an inner vision of Peter...

"_Please don't get into any unnecessary trouble..'_ Inner Emmett trailed, waving his hands defensively in front of his chest with an awkwardly pleading smile. Aghh.. Always the passive one...

*_Snore*_ That vision was definitely Matthew.. Best advice so far it seemed.

"Emmett.." Chantal trailed aloud in thought. Her somewhat hopeful vision that had painted itself on her face from thinking of Emmett, suddenly fell into a dull, twitching expression, "Matthew..." She was torn. Such different advice, and so many tips that contradicted someone else's tips. Who should she listen to?

_"Punch him in the face already, Squirt!"_

That tore it! She stamped her foot, calling after the ponytailed boy, "Hey, Asshole!" She called. She couldn't even put her spitfire nature behind her for one solitary moment! She didn't even know his name, thus forcing asshole to be her euphemism, but despite her not knowing the first thing abut him, she could already taste a dreadfully sour flavor forming in her mouth from this, "How about you watch where _YOU'RE_ Going!" Yeah! She was really showing him! She was standing there first, after all, pacing around for God knows how long! He should have seen her there a mile away, and done it deliberately! "Ponytailed Jerk!"

"I watched where I was going," The young man replied back, making no indication of halting to a stop, though he did slow only slightly so that he could hold up this conversation, while calling over to her over his shoulder, "Your dumb ass just happened to be in my way." Wth his face now turned slightly to her, it was easy to see the sharp smirk on his face.

Chantal's jaw dropped. He never even tried to fight it? He just blatantly spelled out the obvious audacity he had to do something so pointlessly rude? How did she even respond to that? He practically acknowledged for all to hear that he already _knew _ and was well aware that he was an asshole!

Taking the pause as a cue to continue, the male's smirk progressed into a sneer, "What, you that brain-dead in combat too?"

As though being sparked to life, she came back into her witty string of replies, "Oh you have NO idea how much I just want to choke you out with your own Goddamn horse tail!" She was urged to chase after him, but something in Matthew's snore had apparently willed her to behave. She wasn't exactly sure what he meant through that sluggish, sleepful gurgling, but whatever it was, well, it must have been really convincing. She lifted her inward curved hand aside her mouth, projecting sound as she called back out to him in one more rousing go to release some of her rage, "AND YOU SUCK TOO!" Okay, that last one was a mildly pathetic attempt to get the final say, but at least she managed to get out some of the pent up, offensive words she had floating around in her head. By far the least...colorful words she had to say to such a proud jerk, but at least it was something.

The only drawback, was that the ebony-haired male must not have heard her, for he resumed his walking, his head facing forward.

"C-Chan..." A timid voice called out from a corner of the Beacon building situated just behind Chantal. There, the long-awaited Bonnie poked her head out from the side, showing her blue-green, or bondie-colored headband, with two V-shaped black lines facing opposite to each other at the side of her head. The rest of her was in a kneeling position, as a sympathetic look clouded over her eyes from behind her black framed glasses. From this position she held, the charm to her necklace could be seen. A black and bondi lock, whose key-hole portion was upturned into points that gave the appearance of a shield.

"Huh?" Chantal shifted, a notable scowl still lingering on her face. Upon seeing that it was Bonnie, however, it slowly withdrew to make room for her usually cheerful demeanor, "Oh, there you are! It's about damn time you showed up!" She walked over, a new skip in her step as she shook her head at recollection of her passed altercation, "Boy, there are so moooo-dy peole here!"

"Y-yea..." Bonnie laughed awkwardly, though not moving from her place, "Moody...P-people..." At this point, one could tell that she wasn't listening to Chantal any longer. Instead, she had become distracted by the increasing number of new arrivals that were exiting from the airships, and practically flooding every part of of the campus. "People...right..."

Chantal looked at her, taking it notice of the fact that her friend was both kneeling and stammering, not to mention her hiding behind part of the building. She then directed her gaze back out to the horizon to see the newcomers walking about nearby. Excitement! She had been waiting to scope these guys out..Well, not just the guys.. Okay, so she wanted to scope out some guys too.. but that was besides the point. The tan-skinned girl turned her head back towards Bonnie, "Don't tell me you're still afraid of people," She scoffed.

Immediately, Bonnie shot up from behind the corner, stamping her foot in anger, "I am NOT!" She yelled, though only moments after, lowered her voice to avoid any awkward stares from newcomers that just didn't understand the situation at hand, "Not...at all...!"

"Oooh! I'm glad!" Chimed Chantal, a huge smile on her face as she thought a little of a devious thought, "In that case, we can have the spot right in the _middle_ during Sir Evilpin's speech!" Yes... Sir Evilpin. That was Ozpin. For some reason or another, she had been carrying this deep seated thought that Ozpin was evil, for whatever reason, that is.. Perhaps had something to do with her inner grudge regarding that whole I.D channel, kidnapping thing. Anyways, she grabbed her friend's wrist, and she dragged her along behind her, "LEGGO!"

"What?!" Bonnie panicked, firming her legs in place so that she wouldn't move from the spot of which she found most comfortable at the moment -at least not without a good fight, "T-The middle...?!" She repeated, staring at her friend with a horrified expression, "Maybe the back..? I mean, we've heard the speech before...right?"

"Yup! So we won't be paying attention to the speech, we'll be paying attention to the people! Even more of a reason to go to the middle!"

"W-wait! I-I meant-" No matter what, the girl was digging herself into a deeper version of this problem than orginally called for. It would have just been better to tell the undeniable truth. Chantal DID know it after all, so there was no sense in continuing her attempts at hiding it, "Ok, maybe I'm a bit...nervous..."

"See?" Chipped her fellow potential freshman, "Was it really that hard to admit..? No.. It wasn't..." She took a settling moment to just admire the clean air, and take a deep, calming breath, "Ahh..NOW TO THE SPEECH!"

"Wha-NO!" Bonnie yelled, but to no avail. She lost her balance, and had no real choice but to step out of her hiding spot. As she did so, she clenched her bondi and black shield neklace in her hand. She was never even granted the chance to dust the excess dirt from her clothes, which consisted of a -like her headband-, primarily bondi colored outfit. She had a form-fitting, long-sleeved shirt that came off of her shoulder -though had black straps-, laced with the black lines that formed distorted "X"s over her chest, lower stomach, and arms. Reaching down now to do away with that dust -lest someone think less of her-, she trudged on. The black bag, carrying her weapon -strapped in place with a black belt over her lower back- bounced slightly off of her blue shorts -which were adorned with a black stripe going down the outside of the hem-. She also took a moment to adjust her black leggings, and her black and bondi knee-high flat boots. It was a little difficult to do such while being pulled along, but she managed to do so, then afterwards began to settle into her own pace. "Hey..." She began, upon remember what had been briefly touched on before, "What was that about moody people?"

Not wanting to worry her friend, being that she already seemed to carry that phobia of crowded rooms and strangers, Chantal replied with a simple chime, "Nothing to worry your fluffy little head about." She was making reference to Bonnie's curly black locks, "Let's just focus on hearing Professor Evil Evilpin's speech again, and scoping out our new possible classmates, mkay?" She seemed surprisingly calm, or maybe just a little too confient.. Just confident enough? It was a loaded, not to mention, opinionated question, but either way, the fact remained that she was pretty secure; enough to encourage Bonnie whilst tagging her along.

Through crowds of students, all gathered and absorbed in their chatter, the twosome came squeezing and weaving by.

"S'cuse me! Coming through! Nice skirt!" Chantal repeated her phrases in chime, adding a few compliments or comments for things she liked, or thought highly of, while nonchalantly filing through.

"P-Pardon me..." Bonnie whispered, accidentally bumping most of the people she had passed as she was being dragged through, "Excuse me..."

Eventually settling into a nice place towards the middle of the room -though closer to the back-, it seemed the two had made a compromise. Or, maybe, Chantal had just tricked her companion. The back was the ideal spot to see everyone, so she had planned to nuzzle herself nicely on in there from the start.

Bonnie breathed a slight sigh of relief as she found them near the back- albeit closer to the middle than she would have liked- of the crowd. Raising an eyebrow at Chantal, she looked at her friend accusingly. "But we already know who's here…" Her quiet voice never subsided, only getting quieter since they had settled down.

It seemed the brunette had never even noticed her friend's words, as she was too preoccupied in her attempt to peer atop the crowds, "Looks like alot alot alot of dudes.." She trailed, huffing in thought, "Oo.. Fluffy hair.." She murmured, pleased with a tuft of hair she noticed in the many heads laid out affront her.

"Dudes..." Bonnie muttered under her breath, fully aware that Chantal had paid no mind to her. Timidly, the black haired female stood up to her toes, leaning on her friend for support as she looked on to the crowd of heads, some of which towered over her now measely height of 5'9. She was able to see a little more than Chantal, being that she was taller. Many different colors of hair, skin, and eyes was what she saw; nothing like she had ever seen before. Swallowing hard, fear began to settle into her system.

"I'll keep this brief."

'_Here it comes..' _Bonnie thought to herself, attention turned to the stand now, where Ozpin had taken his place with Glynda Goodwitch at his side.

Taking a break from her scanning, Chantal turned her attention up. Despite her wildly acknowledged theory...Alright, just despite her theory, which only she seemed to believe... -The Ozpin's evil theory-, she decided not to comment on it at this point in time. She would probably get weird looks from those in the crowd, and Bonnie would likely just hush her.

"You have traveled here today in search of knowledge- to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction," Whispers bounded around the room, starting in a small area, then growing to cover the entirety of the room, "You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only take you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

"And if that step was made for us..?" Bonnie murmured disdainfully to herself, her anxiety beginning to evolve into that pessimism that lied within, "I don't know if I can exactly handle myself here..." Thinking back this way, her breathing started to pick up in speed, and before she knew it, her heart rate was following suit.

_'Okay, Bonnie...'_ She tried to calm her senses, '_Nothing bad is going to...'_ She stopped, her pessimism's arrival erasing every positive thought from before, and leaving only its negativity to replace it, "We'll fail..." She began, "No...Chan'll make it and I'll stay behind... I'll disappoint everyone who took their time training me..." She thought of the disappointed faces of team PERM, solidifying her fears. Soon, it was just too much to bear, and it caused the girl to leave her friend's side and walk to the exit of the building, eyes glued to the ground as she miraculously managed to dodge every passerby just by the sight of their feet. Surely, she had some practice.

Upon feeling that the hand that had been laid upon her shoulder for support was removed, Chantal slowly came down from her tip-toes to sit her feet stabley on the ground. "What the.." She narrowed her eyes, then casually rolled them, uttering a sigh as she stalked after Bonnie. She wasn't the type to ditch out on something like this, and it sort of made her wonder what was going through her mind, "Where are you going?!" She whisper-shouted, as not to disturb the listeners around her. She was set to follow after her Bondi-dressed friend, but instead, she stopped on the edges of the crowd, having not been able to navigate as quickly through the crowd as her friend, "..Must be nerves... I'm sure she'll show back up... "

Laying her sleeping bag at what she deemed an unnoticeable corner of the room, Bonnie sat down with a 'plop' sounding from her sleeping bag as she slipped under the color of her bondi colored overshirt, using them as makeshift pajamas. Pulling the end down a bit, she noticed her loose, black short-shorts were poking out slightly over her black stockings. She had discarded her headband and black-rimmed glasses, peering from left to right as she inspected any eyes on her. As satisfied as she could be, Bonnie entered her miniature bed and rolled over, her eyes staring at the wall as she tried not to think of the countless other students in the ballroom.

Chantal, who came bounding into the room, practically bouncing out of happiness, had her hair tied up into a bun to avoid tangling while she slept. Of course, by the way she was darting about, sleep likely wouldn't be coming to her any time soon. She was comfortablly sinking into a pair of oversized chartreuse pants, and a black tanktop; a simple look for a simple time. Throwing down the dark, lime green sleeping black in a messy fashion, she plopped down on it with her legs crossed. "Sooo, Bonnie," She began in a sing song tone, whilst her head tipped to the side, "Will ya tell me what happened earlier now?" She was trying to lighten the mood, or at least ask about her friend's earlier weaving her way out of the speech in the most kind way possible. She'd tried asking prior to, but it seemed her efforts beforehand hadn't bore much fruit.

"Nothing really..." Bonnie replied quietly, keeping her voice down, lest somebody hear her. While she spoke, she kept her eyes glued to the wall, ignoring the sounds of both Chantal, and the others present in the room.

The response Chantal's efforts were gifted with, forced her to form a lazy glare, "Okay..." She replied calmly, though clearly her words dripped with the remnants of motive, "IF that's the case. I'll just wait for you to tell me." She stood up, stretching out her spine, "Whenever that may be... In the meantime though... I'm gonna..." She had been glancing around the room, looking for something to fill in that 'gonna with'. What would she do.. Her brown eyes suddenly widened, and her jaw fell agape, "OH.. OH MY GOD... OH MY GOD! BONNIE! I HAD A BONNIE!" She looked down, arms flailing about in shock and excitement.

To this, the black haired female could only turn, a bored countenance present upon her features, "What." It was in the form of a question, though it came out more like an irritable statement.

"I had a Bonnie!" The chartreuse wearing girl threw her hands up in front of her chest, waving them sporratically in her habitual hand-talking motions. One would, at first, likely have no idea what Chantal was trying to convey here, that is until, "We're in the same freshman year as Pyrrah... And... and... the rest of them!" Now, it was clear.. She was referring to slow reaction time... In fact, had it not been for her chance glance over to see Ruby and Blake engaging in their slow-motion, dead-end conversation, she would have still been unaware!

"Yea. I know," Surely Bonnie wasn't THAT dense, "What of it?"

"I didn't!" It seemed the brown haired girl WAS apparently that dense. She lowered down to her knees in a way that they barely touched the floor, a crouch-like pose that gave her a spring-like appearance. It made her seem like she would pop up at any moment. "I want... to meet them..." Namely, it was Yang and Nora, who had both proven to be her favorite characters of the bunch. Never had it occured to her that making friends with such pivitol characters might throw off events, or screw up the timeline. In fact, her outlook on this situation was relatively simple. Do what you want. Have no consequences. "So! I'll be right back!" She popped up from the floor, placing her hands on her hips, "Unless...y'know.. you wanna come see.." She made the attempt to perform a suggestive eyebrow wiggle, only for it to look more like a spasm.. The one action she could never do right with her eyebrows, "Lie Rennnn.."

At the sound of that name, Bonnie's lips twitched upwards, forming a smile. Not a moment afterwards, however, they curved down, making a more awkward expression. It was times like these that made her glad that her face never really registered color. Lie Ren had always been her fvaorite male in Rwby, beating out Jaune, who couldn't even dream of being in the running ("I utterly hate useless people," she would always say). There was something, though, something that could possibly stand in between the pink-streaked man and her list of favorites: Nora. Those two belonged together, and there was no way in Elsword that he would even remotely notice the-

"Wait..." She looked up at Chantal, sitting up in a panicked motion as she stared intently at her, as though realization had suddenly dawned on her. "You're leaving...?" Bonnie was well-aware that both she and Chantal could ruin any part of the plotline at any moment in time -mostly the latter-, but the most important matter on her mind was the fact that her friend was leaving her to the wolves!

Batting her eyelashes a few times, whilst giving a curious, head-tilted expression, Chantal shrugged her shoulders, "I asked you if you wanted to come with."

Bonnie narrowed her dark brown eyes at her friend, an intimidating air present despite the pout that she had tried to turn into a scowl, "You already know my answer..."

"Well, then I'm still going!" The brunette tucked her hands against her hips, probably another gesture that she had picked up from their trainers -Rosa in particular-, "But I will leave you with some advice." Her voice dropped a few octaves into a poor attempt at capturing a male's voice, "Abide by your curfew, don't drink anything from a stranger, don't eat anytihng from a stranger and..." Shrugging her shoulders, her voice rose back up to its original tone, "You can talk to strangers but... look out for weirdos.." Her thumb motioned over to a male seated in the corner, "Like him!"

It was clear to see that the male she had motioned to had a golden-blonde hair color, but that was about the only feature that could be seen around the head. The rest was covered up by a large book, which looked a little like a Dictionary.. Or maybe closer to those books that Emmett had forced them to read. The weirdness continued on in the form of a white gauze wrapped loosely around the bicep part of his arms, then tighter down towards the forearms and hands. Didn't seem as though he were injured, as accounted for by the completely fine spaces between gauze, but it was still there.. He seemed a little large too, though it would better be described as bulky by the look of his somewhat muscular arms -still hard to be sure when it came to legs, since the material of his pajama pants was rather baggy-.

"Anyway.." Chantal didn't wait long after before turning a bright smile to Bonnie, "Have fun, gonna go, bye~!" She spoke in a pitch and tone that became progressively higher and faster paced, then went to go skipping off.

"H-Hey! Wait...!" Bonnie hissed, grabbing Chantal by her pant leg. Unfortunately, the girl's sudden excited burst of motion was too much to hold her still by, prompting Bonnie to trip with her sleeping bag still around her ankles, hop a few times away from her friend that she had just released, and finally go tripping over some other unsuspecting victim. She prayed it wouldn't be someone that would get too angry with her, for she was already terrfied of someone being in too close a proximity, I-I'm sorry...!" She tried to yell, but instead it came out more like a small whisper. She was bracing herself for the worst, freezing on top of the victim's spread-out legs.

Chantal, whom had stumbled due to the tug of her pants leg, had managed to catch herself, and right now, she was in the process of turning around to see just what she had gotten snagged on in her attempt to walk away. Much to her surprise, she noticed Bonnie now draped over that blonde's lap. She stayed frozen, not sure what to expect, and thus, making no sudden movements.

The nameless blonde seemed to have no real issue, rather he looked relatively undisturbed. He acted as though he never felt, nor heard Bonnie, and just casually flipped to the next page in that book whilst continuing to scan through it.

The first thought that came to the fallen girl's mind.. was that he was ignoring her. As he continued to read, however, she realized that no person would literally keep the culprit on their legs whilst reading. "Ah..." She wavered a bit. The last thing she wanted to do was get his attention, but she did want her apology to be acknowledged, "I...ah...I'm..."

This time, he seemed to heed. Lowering the book slightly, it was now possible to see his face. The left side of his face, around the area where his eye would be, was wrapped in the same kind of white gauze as around his arms, and it reached around to the start of his cheeks. His other eye was open, a bright, lime-green color in iris. Slowly, he lowered one hand from his book, and tipped his head backwards a little, as well as off to the side as he reached it out, lightly gripping a portion of Bonnie's cheek between his fingers, "How cute..." His voice almost sounded tired from the amount of apathy it was drowned in, and even sarcastic...Actually.. Very sarcastic.

As she felt his hand along her cheek, she blinked twice in surprise, a shocked look stretching over her face, '_The Elsword?'_

Right after that awkward form of contact, he returned to his book casually, never even commenting further on her removing herself from him, or anything of the sort.

'_Cute...?' _She repeated mentally as she quickly rose, sleeping bag in tow. As she retreated back over to where she had originated, and sprawled out her sleeping bag where it belonged, she began searching her mind for any possible clues. She tore through her thoughts; anything that would lead her to believe that he was joking. Then it hit her; his sarcastic tone. The boy must have been playing her, and she was almost stupid enough to fall for it.

"Nice try..." She muttered, wiping her cheek with the outside of her hand, as though in mild disgust or bitterness, "But not this time."

So close. Chantal had been so close to getting the chance to hold her conversation with Nora, but after seeing what had just taken place, and knowing full-well that she played a part in its occurance, she knew it would be selfish to continue on as though she hadn't seen it. Besides, even if she played it off well, she knew that Bonnie knew that she knew it was all her fault. Conclusively, with a pent up breath filling and slightly expanding her cheeks, the brunette began to make her way over, "I'm gonna get it.." She muttered, simultaneously expelling heavily.

"Hey, Bonnie?" She questioned, slinking over and plopping down on her bright green sleeping bag, "Did you.." She tried to put apositive twist on this, and so she nudged her shoulder a little, while carrying a sly expression, "Just find a new male friend?"

Bonnie glanced over to the questioning girl. Sure enough, a menacing glare was present on her face, just as Chantal had guessed. Sure, it wasn't the brunette's fault, but she had a buildup of frustration for a number of reasons right now, and that one instance just didn't help, "Me?" Her quiet voice was accompanied by a sigh as she slightly raised a brow, only to lower it just after; a habit she had. Anyone could tell -when that habit was in play- that she was either being sarcastic, or lying, and it certainly wasn't that last one. "Friends with a boy?" She seemed to scoff, "Right.." Turning back to the wall and nuzzling herself into the pillow of her makeshift bed, Bonnie frowned, "Aren't you going back to talk to your friends?"

Nora and Yang? The ones she hadn't a moment to talk to? The young brunette tucked herself comfortably into her bright -as HELL- sleeping bag, and huffed, folding her arms. She was set up vertically, whereas Bonnie's sleeping space was more horiztonal. Hey, kudos, to her for trying to be different, "I'm gonna.. Just go ahead and get ready for bed." She wasn't exactly attempting to appease Bonnie's rage, but she did know it was only fair that she stay put as an apology to causing so much trouble spurned from her own selfishness. She bunched the blankets around her, then turned to lay on her side.

A pang of guilt shot through the bondi girl. So Chantal had to waste her time with her antisocial friend, who she got enough of on a daily basis.. yet wasn't allowed to make any other friends.. That _was_ what it was like, right? After all, it was what her inner pessimism told her was accurate. Her face drooping into sadness, she spoke again, her voice much softer, "N-no...I was serious. You should have fun..."

"Psh.." Seeming to dismiss Bonnie's idea, she shrugged her shoulders, replying with the positive again, "Don't worry about it. I'll have a shitload of fun tomorrow when I kick butt in the forest!" A mishervious grin etched across her face, "It's gonna be great!"

The forest.. That was right.. The black haired female's eyes seemed to reach for the ground, as her negative thoughts resurfaced in her mind, '_I might fail...'_ A voice in her head was speaking volumes, burrowing its negativity deep into her subconscious, '_They...might.. hate me...'_

Breaking her from her projected ideals, Chantal's delayed sentiments of pre-sleep wishes began to linger out of her tired lips in the midst of a dreary yawn, "Night, Bon..." Funny, she wasn't tired just a moment ago, but it seemed it just kind of set in once she had to the opprotunity to bask in relaxation.

"Oh.." Bonnie was about to return the words, but found as she turned that her friend had almost immediately drifted off, and now seemed to be peacefully sleeping. It allowed her time to return to her thoughts. After moments of heeding and pondering their meaning or trustworthiness, she merely uttered a final affirmation in near silence, where she believed only her ears could hear,

"I'll…do my best…"

She hadn't been asleep at all -Chantal that is-, rather, she simply feigned such, whilst her eyes were brushed shut. She heard Bonnie's proclamation, or rather self-promise, and she had to smile, her shoulders somewhat hunching with glee, '_You had better!'_

**A/N: **

**Santa: And that's the end of this chapter! Now you know, my dear Snowflakes. If Santa tells you to stay away from weirdos, or choke out people with their ponytails.. :c You should listen.. *Cough* Bonnie *Cough***

**Chained: I mean if you don't practically THROW me into them, then I-wait…ponytail…?**

**Santa: It's nothing important. c: ...ahah..*Sweatdrop* .. BYE, MY DEAR SNOWFLAKES!**


	6. Forest of Failure!

**A/N: 'Ello babus. Welcome to the next Chapter of RED LIKE RASPBERRIES..? **

**Happy Belated Halloween to all you spooks, and I hope you got a bunch of candy, or in most of your cases, bought alot of candy.. maybe stole a bunch of candy from little kids.. ANYWHOZALS.**

**Princess Santa Clause: It's time for the forest! The Exam! The FUN! The FRIGHT! The TEAMS. Will Bonnie and I wind up together? Or will we be screwed in the end.. D:**

**Chained: Eheh… I'm sure we'll be- oh who am I kidding…we're screwed…I didn't get any candy….this day is just getting worse and worse…AH! Woe is me…woe is- OK WHO WROTE THIS SCRIPT!? I'LL KILL YOU!**

**Santa: LOL. While Bonnie kills the directing crew, Enjoy this new chapter!**

Somehow, throughout the nighttime hours, Chantal, who was -oddly enough- a relatively still sleeper had managed to be strewn across Bonnie. The way they lied somewhat resembled an 'X'. There was no real reasoning behind why it happened.. They were probably the unfortunate victims of some kind of prank or something. They both lied soundly in slumber, oblivious to the way in which they did so.

"Wake up, Lazy butt!"

There was the sudden bellowing that served as the unwanted alarm. It was just a playful shout right? Not much that could wake anyone, right? Wrong. Bonnie, the lighter of the two sleepers, shot up in alarm, and the domino effect continued on from there.

Chantal was startled by the astonishing movement, and being that her body was...Prone to gravity... Her small leap out of fright sent her hurling clear across the room, "AYAAAAH!"

_**CRASH**_

A lingering table that had been sitting unnoticeably on the other edge of the room wound up massacred under the crashing girl. The top had cracked and folded in, and the legs had practically collapsed. If one assumed that everyone was now awake, they would be utterly correct. Many of the people in the room had jolted up, and they were stopping to stare at the incident -wondering how on Earth it could have possibly happened-. Clearly, Chantal was in far too much pain to realize.

"It's morning, it's morning, it's morning, it's morning!" Nora continued to obliviously sing, bearing no realization to the commotion that she had just stemmed.

"Oops..." Now thoroughly awake, Bonnie cringed, walking -albeit sleepily-, over to her friend, "I-I'm sorry...Are...you okay...?"

"Depends.." Trailed the dazed brunette, head upturned and blankly staring over to Bonnie with a lingering expression of mild pain, "Am I...alive?"

"I would hope so..." The ebony haired girl lingered on, hesitantly dawing her glasses -which she had held securely in her hand. She inspected the damage caused by her friend, while the familair bouncing ball of orange haired energy continued her morning rant just behind her.

"Agh..." Russet hair falling slack from her bun, Chantal rolled off of the table, plopping onto the floor in lack of grace. Instantly after hitting the floor, she bounced up to her feet, lifting her hands, "It's alright! I'm okay!" She called out to the room's occupants-majority of which not caring whether she was alright or not. Either that, or they never looked away from their own affairs to give the impression that they did.

Their reactions to her pain forced a large sweatdrop to appear just beside her head. She drew her hands back, a twitch in her brow noticeable in her closed eyes as she turned to face her friend, "So!" She drove away her irritable nature for a moment, instead placing her hands on her lower back serenely as she began to work out a few kinks and bruises -that the table had affectionately gifted her- in her lower back, "The locker room is after this right..? Or is it something else?"

Bonnie recalled the episode, reeling it out of her memory banks so that she could reference it. She _had_ fully memorized it a few months ago, "Whole 24 hours...nope... Teeth brushing...friends for so long...get our stuff back...bribe the headmaster...that's breakfast...and...then the lockers...Oh!" She speed-walked over to her sleeping bag, bending down and gathering it along with the rest of her things.

Following her cue, and beginning to gather her own things, Chantal glanced up to Bonnie, waiting for any kind of sign that would distinguish what events were to come next.

"We have to hurry before they cut in line!"

That comment from Bonnie told her everything. It must have been breakfast. Still, cut in line? "They do that here?" Chantal chirped quizically, a bit more casual now, "I thought this was like...I dunno.. Some kind of perfect society or something.." Clearly she had mistaken Vale for some sort of Utopia.

"Perfect society, yes," Bonnie nodded with determination, though her brow slightly furrowed as she began packing both of their items. Her brunette friend's speed was far too slow for her liking, "Perfect people? Elsword no. No such thing. Now hurry up before we meet someone we shouldn't!"

Chantal had to roll her eyes, now having all of her items tucked into her side -excluding those that Bonnie had taken upon herself to collect, "Yeah yeah.. Well, I almost talked to Nora.. You think that'll bother anything?"

"Well, she made you crash into a table, didn't she?"

"..." She was condemned to silence for a moment, that was until her face contorted into an unamused apathy at Bonnie's notation, "I'm. READY. for. food. Let's go, hurry it up!"

"Thirteen bathroom stops.." Bonnie sighed as she closed her locker, its contents, combat outfit from the day before included, now in her possession. Inside the bag on her lower back housed her weapon and other items sealed up nice and tight, "Unbelievable." Of course, the girl had been quoting again to both pass the time, and cease her creeping paranoia from making itself known once more. Taking a deep breath, she connected the small, black 'U' shaped item to her shield necklace, creating her recommended symbol; a lock-shield.

Already prepared, and now practically dancing in one spot, Chantal thought contently of all the excitement welling up inside of her. The whole entrance examed seemed awesome to her. Untold wonders! Unknown secrets! Well... they wouldn't be unknown if she had just watched the rest of the episodes. Still, she had managed to decipher the majority of it, thanks to hearing her friends so-passionately discuss it each week. "Okay so..." She began, beginning to pace in their small area of space, "We just have to make a plan so that we wind up on the same team!" Like Ren and Nora!

"It's not my fault Jiminy-wait," Bonnie was severed from her speech midquote. She had a plan for this one, "Why don't we just sit at the closest platforms and track each other until we touch dow-"

"Air stalking! Chantal chimed in reply, nodding her head, "Excellent choice! I'll just stalk you to the ground or vise versa!"

"..." Bonnie shook her head at her friend, a sympathetic countenance present, "Why does it sound so wrong when you say it...?"

"Can you imitate a sloth?" At that moment, the two heard the voices of one of their shared favorite characters from the other side of the lockers. Bonnie's lips faintly and awkwardly twisted into a tiny grin, which she now tried desperately to wipe from her face. Nora Valkyrie was present.. That could only mean-

"Nora?" Her thoughts were interrupted by a male's voice this time, verifying her inner prediction.

"Yes Ren?"

"I don't think sloths make alot of noise.."

Chantal turned her sly gaze on Bonnie, knowing how much she seemed to adore Lie Ren. She discreetly rolled her eyes, raising her index, then middle, then ring finger.

Bonnie nearly yelped in excitement. His voice sounded even better in person! She thanked Elsword that her face didn't register color, for it would be a bright shade of crimson.

"What's why it's perfect!" Nora countered, even more enthusiastic than previously, "No one will suspect we're working together!"

"Come on, Nora, let's go."

She could practically see the smile on his face as they left. She quoted Nora quietly as they both left, thus leading the simultaneous -though one not verbally uttered- speaking of the words, "Well, not 'together-'together'.."

They both went on, giggles and all.

From there, Bonnie sank into where she stood, leaning against the locker and unable to get that pesky grin off her face.

Chantal uttered a tiny mischevious chuckle to herself, but then quickly submerged it with the same excited look as before, "And then we can..." She trailed, as though she had been talking the whole time. Boy, it took effort to hide that devious expression that hid beneath her features, "Bonnie... Were you listening?" She tipped her head skeptically to the side.

"H-Hm? Huh?" Bonnie answered, her dreamy smile wavering as she was called to attention, "Did you say something..?"

"Not a thing.." Rolling her eyes, the russet headed girl began pulling her friend along out of the lockerooms, and to the stage, here they were supposed to be meeting. Well, it wasn't so much a stage, more so it was a large space filled with launch pads that were buried into the ground, at what looked to be the edge of a cliff...Delightful!

"Oh..." She trailed, staring at the launchpads ahead. She slowly looked up at Bonnie, a bead of sweat forming on her cheek, "So go ahead, Bonnie...Pick your poison so that I can airstalk you..."

"Poison..." Bonnie played back aloud, rolling her eyes and habitually quirking then lowering a brow, "I promise, the only thing poisoned is your mind. You're insane, y'know..."

"I know!" The brunette chimed, shifting her head to look up at her friend fondly at the compliement -although most would argue it was more of a diss-.

Given a clear view, the black haired female blinked twice, noticing something oddly out of place with her friend, "Hey...where are your glasses...?"

"Oh...Well I usually wear my frames loose..." She lingered on, offering a casual shrug of her shoulders, as though it weren't too big a deal, "So if they fall in battle...well, I'm fucked." She waggled a finger to Bonnie, her hand-talking making a comeback, "SO...for that reason, I made the switch! Contacts! Woot woot!"

"But...the air pressure..." Bonnie paused, mulling over the newfound strengths and abilities that were discovered over the course of their training. She pushed the fear of death and failure passed her stomach, and the young female just settled on letting the brunette have her way. And besides, there was no better opportunity present for her to say _'I told you so'_. "Do what you want..."

"And that I shall," Chimed the tanned girl in reply. She gave though to the air pressure, but it seemed invalid as a consequence of her choice to wear contacts. Clearly, she knew something that Bonnie didn't. "So we can just go on a grab a nice little death trampoline somewhere up at the end over there or...Up here...Somewhere..." She shrugged her shoulders, "Somewhere where we won't completely screw up the plot!"

"We? Female, please. I-" The taller of the two had her words shut down by the two familiar figures passing by- Professor Ozpin, and Glynda Goodwitch.

Chantal glared as soon as their backs were turned, only further showcasing the difference in their thoughts, '_Oh great. It's Doctor Professor Evil Mc. Evilson and Madame Skimpy Assistant.'_

To Bonnie, this was a sign that the start of their exam was that much closer, and that all of this had just become even more real. Gulping in dismay, Bonnie desperately tried to steel her resolve, balling her hands up into tight fists as she did so, '_I'll definitely do my best...'_ She was never bothered trying to convince herself that she would make it, or even pass, for it would only weaken her will. She just had to maintain this state of mind.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest," Ozpin's eyes glanced once overed every person on the launch pads, lingering more so on the two young ladies.

Bonnie bit her lip, resorting to her quotes to find comfort, "Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metrics or forms of measure, and all of it...irreplaceable." It was her favorite character's trailer, and she recited it to herself in a light whisper.

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard the rumors about the assignment of 'teams'," Glynda picked up where Ozpin had left off, "Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates...today." From the other end of the launch pads, the girls could faintly hear some of the protests from a certain red-hooded girl.

"Your hopes have become my burden. I will find my own liberation..." Bonnie continued, almost silently, though she came to an abrupt pause just as her utterance, "Wait... that didn't make any sense for this situation..." Oddly enough, her mistakes had supplied her with a certain air of calmness.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon," Ozpin patterned back to his own turn at speaking again, "So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well with.

"Work well with...yea..." She groaned quietly, glancing over to Chantal.

It seemed that Chantal had glanced over as well, and she flashed a bright grin, and peace sign. That bright look, however, began to dull down, being replaced with a dry face of stricken realization. "When we start doing things in sync..." She began, referencing their simultaneous sharing of gazes, "It's a clue that we've spent too much time around each other..."

The bright side here, was when Bonnie paired up with her friend, she would have a much better chance of passing.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"WHAT?!" Came a shout from the other side of the cliff, and at the sound of this far off protest, a sound of shattering glass seemed to echo through Bonnie's mind.

"See?" Nora chirped -most definitely to Lie Ren- in a whimsical manner, "I told you-!"

"After you've partnered up," Continued the instruction, "Make your way to the northern end of the forest." The headmaster never skipped a beat, continuing on with his speech, even with the chatter and outbursts, "You will meet opposition along the way. Do _not_ hesitate to destroy everything in your path...or you _will_ die."

"Just what I needed to hear..." The black haired young lady spoke through an exhale, craning her neck from side to side to the tune of a corresponding couple of cracks. She felt her heartbeat quicken significantly.

"PFFT!" Came from a scoffing Chantal. She glanced over to Bonnie with a raised brow and slight grin, "Really? You're excited to do some killing? I don't believe it!" She spoke in the midst of limbering up and adjusting the large, weighty black pouch strapped to her right leg so that it wouldn't hinder her movements within the forest.

"You misunderstand what those words did, my dear ijit," She corrected the brunette, though ran out of time to give an indepth explanation before she was cut off by the headmaster.

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path, containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as you're standing, and we will grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Questions questions.. Any questions..

Bonnie grit her teeth, not because of fear, but because of how accurate her predictions involving Chantal usually were, "I swear, if she asks-"

"YEAH! Are you EVIL?" And it was obvious that the question had come from the little Chantal standing on her launchpad, with her hand waving around in the air, and the whimsically devious look on her face.

"Oh dear Elsword..." Bonnie facepalmed in embarassment. She shook her head at Chantal, not even realizing that a few heads turned to the two.

"Yeah..." Someone in the front started to speak up, probably dismissing Chantal's question just as Ozpin himself had, "Um, sir?"

"Good!" Ozpin interrupted, "Now take your positions."

"I'm...not surprised..." The black haired teenager shifted her glasses for a moment before crouching, her torso almost to her hips while her hands gripped a certain object: the bag that rested on her hip. Still, she could not shake that distracting stupidity that her friend had just blatantly displayed for all to see. '_Honestly..._' She thought, "Who would actually take that girl seriously?" Her outer fragments of an inner rant immersed Bonnie in a world of her own thoughts.

"Weeeeee!" Chantal cried out with glee as she was launched into the air, arms outspread as though she were attempting to be a bird.

Bonnie seemed to be unaware that two launchpads, one holding Chantal, had just sprung up, launching the occupants into the air above the forest. Her place? The third pannel. '_I mean really-_' She was completely taken off guard by the sudden jolt underfoot that sent her flying into the air with a highpitched yelp.

Having a simply amazing time, Chantal began to rotate from stomach to back, "Time to quit playing!" She chimed. Sure, the air pressure Bonnie had mentioned prior to had applied for a bit, but the whole fast-paced slinging motion went fading into oblivion as she began to casually hover just below the clouds. "Air stalk! Air Stalk! Air St-" She practically chanted, only to have her words die down upon noticing a small creature at her side. Immediately, her love of animals allowed it to snatch her attention away, "Aww...Hi, birdy..."

Within an instant, a red and black blur came whizzing passed, snatching down the bird in a plume of feathers that lingered around he altitude, only accompanied with a shrill scream of, "BIRDY NO!"

"Dear God..." She trailed, still wide-eyed from ths spectacle. Chantal burst into an overdramatic sound of sopping, wiping at her nonexistent tears with her index finger, "He was so young..."

Bonnie, unfortunately, wasn't coasting so easily. She managed to stablilize herself, but not without a scorching heat bursting through on her face. Luckily, her dark skin had managed to make it look like a barely noticeable red. Who would even see her face anyway? "How embarassing..." She mumbled to herself, shaking her head once more, "Of all the things that could happen..." She tried her best to focus on the path ahead, soon drawing her weapon out of her bag, and spreading it wide to use to its full extent.

At that exact moment of extension, the weapon flew from her hands, courtesy of a sharp bump to her arm from another candidate for studency. She paled as she had to sit by helplessly from above, watching as the object that was responsible for saving her life flipped downward towards her destination while the culprit just sailed passed. "Oh no..." The upside? When she landed, her weapon shouldn't be too far out of her reach. The downside? Well, she just may not be alive when she landed!

Far above, Chantal floated along still, staying at the same altitude as she had been in just moments ago -somehow-. She was swamped with sadness and depression at the loss of her birdy... RIP: Birdy Joe; whom she had known for all of a half second... "Wait...why am I sad?" She suddenly mumrured to herself, sitting up and breaking instantaneously out of her slump, "I don't even like birds!" After breaking the hold that Birdy Joe had on her psyche, the brunette suddenly stiffened, alarmed at a striking realization brought about by seeing the brunt of the competitors come soaring overhead. She dropped a few feet in altitude, though quickly began to hover back up into place. "Air stalking! That's right!" She began to hastily swivel her head about, trying to get a good idea of where her friend may have gone. Everywhere she looked, she found faces other than hers, "How hard is it to find a girl in a bright blue outfit flying through the sky!?"

"Shoot..! She must have landed already!" She quickly drew her head down to spectate from an aerial view. Majority of the time, that would be a pretty decent method of search, but he trees were so tall and thick with leaves that the notion became quickly disproven, "I'll have to search on foot.." She reached her sunkissed hands to her waist, yanking a rectangular object from her belt, and holding it up in her hand while her body began to softly drift down towards the ground.

For those that hadn't yet picked up on it, that was Chantal's semblance: Gravity Manipulation. Usually, she worked it through lightening gravitational pulls. Manifestation of self, the definition says? Well that applied for her too, it seemed... maybe being that she was a little...airy...Air-headed even. It hadn't been particularly easy one to find and master either. It was found with active help of Rosa, and mastery came with alot of broken bones and rushed walls. Even now, she was far from really mastering it. Apparently, to grasp even the basics of effective use for this semblance, one needed to master their own mind and concentration factor...Of all the rotten luck; giving this semblance to the one with the nonexistent attention span.

Anywho. A serious expression draped over her usually cheerful face as she touched down. The forest seemed even bigger on level ground than it did up above, but that didn't seem to discourage her in the least, "Oh, Bonnnnniiiieeeee? Come out, come out, wherever you are!" She twitched up onto her tip toes whilst cupping her hand around her mouth to project her shouts, "BOOOOONNNNIIIIEEEEE!?" She was loud enough, wasn't she? Of course not... This forest was enormous.

"Ehhh..." Feeling the faintest bit slighted, she sighed, a pout making its way onto her face, "Guess I'll have to actually go look.." A subtle crackle of a twig beneath the cover of the tall grass nearby caught Chantal's attention. It was settled just near the base of a large tree, and immediately filled her mind with positivity. She lifted her head and shifted it around hastily, "Bonnie?"

"Uh. No?"

There was a drawn out, silent pause, laced with staring and awkwardness; Brown to Yellow-green. It was that guy... The one from the night before. The one that Chantal had specifically warned Bonnie to stay away from out of spontaneous improv.

He had a dull, uninterested expression, and that gauze was still wrapped around his eye, as well as both arms. The sarcasm in his voice was brash and evident, his outfit almost as plain as his personality. He just wore a simple, gray sleeveless vest, and a pair of heavy, dark gray -near black-pants. His boots were large, and gray as well. Overall, he looked rather boring. The only thing that seemed to stand out on the monotonous pallet was the green boomerang-shaped things over what looked like a rivet. His symbol, she would have guessed, which stood out promptly from the right side of his vest.

A bright smile weaved over Chantal's lips, welcomeing, friendly...and-

Oh, she was walking away now.

"Hey, wait," The blonde male called out monotonously, walking quickly after her, "We're supposed to be partners now or whatever... Those are the rules, right?" He truthfully hadn't care much for the rules, and his apathy was clearly voiced in his tone when he spoke. He probably wouldn't be honoring the stated rules, that is, if they hadn't made them sound like 'it's either our way, or the airship back home'. Not much of a choice there huh?

"Look! Boy," Chantal quickly spouted, for lack of a better word. She turned around on her heel to face him, hands stretched out with palms facing him, as though signaling him to 'stop'. Her face shifted into a softer expression, and it was easy to see here, that she was at least trying, despite her exasperation.

He seemed not to be fazed, as his expression never changed. In fact, he seemed to be far from stirred in the least, "My name is Iren," He cut in.

"Right!" Walking up to set her hand on his chest, due to the her hand on his chest, due to height difference requiring a little of a stretch to reach his shoulder, she smiled again, hoping she could use some manner of persuasion to get his agreement on this situation. "Iren," She corrected herself, "My name is Chantal, and I really think we could be great friends! Just...not partners."

"Aw, why not?" His voice sounded taunting, as though he were getting some kind of kick out of this altercation, "Carla, I'm hurt..."

"Whoa...whoa...wait..." Looking up with a bewildered expression, the brunette furrowed a twitching brow, "Carla...? My name is Chantal, I said..."

"Right. Carla."

"No...Chantal."

"Carla."

"Why...Carla..?!"

"You look like a Carla."

"What...I..." Shaking her head while coming to the realization that this was just a huge waste of time, Chantal tore her glare away from his unfazed expression. She backed away from the golden-locked male about a foot or two, "That's not the point here. The point is, I'm looking for a friend that I promised to be partnered with." She raised her hand to a few inches above her, "She's about this tall, black hair, wearing light blue, and probably going to roll her eyes and walk away if you try to talk to her?"

Iren watched the entirety of the demonstration, only blinking his visible eye a few times, while otherwise remaining unchanged, "Haven't seen her."

"Of course you haven't...Anyway..." Turning around, Chantal offered one last smile, though irritable, waving both of her hands -one still having fingers clenched around the rectangular piece that was her weapon-, while backing away from him, "It's been real, Iren, but i'm gonna have to catch you later."

"Hey...I don't know if-" He raised a single finger, ready to interrupt her escape, but it seemed she had had enough of the nonesense.

"No no...Don't try to stop me. I'll be fine, just trust m-" Her words severed their ties as she bumped into something just behind her. Slowly reaching her hand back to pat against the object towering over her, she gulped out an inquiry, "Bonnie...?" She turned around, freezing almost instantly in place upon noticing that it was far from her friend. Well, she was sure that her friend was no angry Ursa that is...

Iren shoved his hands down in his pockets, a casual brow inching its way up his forehead, "If this is Bonnabie, I think I'm pretty happy I didn't meet her beforehand..."

"S-Shut it, Iren..." Trailed the backtracking brunette. Her face began to pale as she eventually wound up standing adjacent to the blonde. Sure, they had been trained to fight Grimm, studied them, practiced, but this was a little difference from a confined practice session... For One. Team PERM wasn't here to save the day if things went awry!

She flicked the rectangular item that had been in her hand, and it began to unfold into a pole-like structure, which abruptly bulked up. From a folded position, an axe-head shot out, shaped somewhat like the hourglass printed on her elongated sleeve; and the blade of it glistened with a chartreuse glinted tint. From the sides, three large, bulky storage-like compartments coiled around the upper middle portion of the pole, standing near upper positioned right hand, and at the top, flicking up with abarely audible _flick_, a scope popped up. She felt proud, maybe even a little show-offy. After all, she had spent alot of time putting this weapon together with Emmett until it was something she was really proud of, even all of the bugs weren't worked out yet.

"A little intricate, don't you think?"

That proud smile fell into a dull side-scowl that she sparked over in Iren's general direction. As she sank for battle, she felt unable to resist the urge to roll her eyes, so she did, whilst a subtle pout lined her lips, '_Bonnie has got to be having better luck than me...'_

_MEANWHILE..._

As Bonnie fell into the trees, she was forced to shield her face with her arms, and curl her legs under protectively to avoid more severe damage. She kept her eyes slightly opened for something that could help her. At times like this, she thanked Elsword that the training she had endured with Chantal had mostly taken away her fear of heights and increased her reaction time. What training managed to do that? Well, Peter shoved her off the edge of the Beacon balcony countless times! Sometimes he graced her with a parachute, and sometimes he let her fall without one, though for the latter occasions, he would catch her if she did not catch herself. Unfortunately for Peter, that usually left him to face the wrath of an angry young female at the sidelines.

_Even if you're a second late, make up for it by doing something unthinkable._ Peter had once instructed her during training. She didn't think much of this advice at the time, calling herself scatterbrained in tough situations, but now those were words to live by. Literally.

A thick branch that she could have grabbed passed her by, just narrowly missing her head. Without thinking, her legs shot out, holding onto the branch with the outside of her knees and making a vertical spin. She cringed, feeling the splinters burrowing themselves firmly into her legs, but she felt relieved nonetheless that her chances of living had just increased. Grabbing a bendable branch, the female slowed down further, then let go to ungracefully roll to the ground. She shot up immediately, starting to look for her weapon as she simultaneously tugged the splinters from her legs.

"Of all the low down, dirty-" Bonnie stopped herself, sighing deeply as she tried to calm her panicking heart, "It probably wasn't on purpose...Calm down, Bonnie. And even if it was, good tihngs happen to those who wait." The thought about the way she had landed. It had been a pretty standard vertical spin, no executed flips or spins in her landing. With that logic, she figured her weapon would still be straight ahead. Regardless of that sliver of good fortune, she would have cried tears of frustration as a result of her overall horrid luck if it weren't for the fact that she was being monitored. She had lost one of her tools for defense: Her best friend. Chantal was out of sight, she was alone, and those splinters were becoming harder to take out as she ran her fingertips down her calves. All in all, she was having a pretty bad day so far.

With respect to everyone that had just happened, she was even tempted to say that forbidden phrase... "Well, there's no possible way this could get any worse..." Scratch that, she was actually bold enough to say it. As though being jinxed, however, at that very moment, a twig snapped near the ebony haired female. Her countenance grew dull, and she never registered any type of surprise or shock, as she already knew what it was. '_I just had to say it...'_ She trailed mentally, shaking her head slowly and taking a deep breath whilst she closed her eyes. It was times like this that she thanked Team PERM for the relentless training that filled their each and every day with soreness and fatigue.

The growls that reverberated in around the area began to increase in volume.

In response, Bonnie began to concentrate, her expression changing into a more serious and calm one; the face she used when Chantal wasn't around. A rather scary expression -as some might have called it-, but it did its job well. Her heart was unsteady for sure, but what would she do if she was killed off now? She grabbed hold of that resolve, and thus began to calm herself.

'_Remember your training, Weiss,'_ She thought to herself, still not uttering a word. As the words materialized in her mind, her body more or less adhered to them. She shifted her body slightly as she followed the movements that presented themselves internally, '_Head up, shoulders back, right foot forward...not THAT forward! Slow your breathing...wait for the right time to strike-'_ by this time, her feet were slightly apart, her hip cocked to the left a bit, with her hands resting on the opposite elbows.

_'And...'_ At that moment, a Beowolf shout out of the bushes and charged at the female.

'_Now!'_ Thanking her mentors for the last time, Bonnie dodged the Beowolf, looking at it for a second before slashing it completely in half with both the upper part of her hands, and her grown nails that she never had the time to bite during training. As confusing as it sounded, it wasn't the girl's nails giving her the ability to cut the Grimm down. It was her Semblace: the Hardening Ability. Learning from Rosa that everyone had something called Semblance, she and Chantal soon found out that hers was the ability to harden parts of her body and make it do- well, things like that and much more.

_A pretty handy gift if you ask me._ She remembered Rosa praise the girl's newfound ability, and Bonnie knew and realized, at that point, how lucky she was to have it -despite its dangerous drawbacks. Running up and taking another Beowolf by surprise, Bonnie's hardened hand shot out, piercing the Grimm's chest to the tune of an audible cracking sound before it shattered to pieces that fell down before her. At this, the other creatures of the like began to hesitate, giving her time to make a mad dash in between the group.

Speed was obviously an important factor with the girl, as well as a few other things -which included aura. Even still, the black haired girl found the Grimm dashing beside her, yet not attacking. Leaping up, Bonnie perched onto a tree branch, only to propel herself even higher, her motions leading to a black-colored object catching her eye.

It was a staff, more than five feet in length. Parts of it were semi-separated by a reflective blue indent throughout the length. It seemed as though the middle part of the item had a trigger of some sort, and despite the possible skepticism others would likely respond with, Bonnie knew exactly what it did. It was her weapon, after all. Landing closer to it, she took one last leap, the metal material gracing her hands with a certain familiarity as she successfully grasped it.

"Yes!" She cheered uncharacteristically, though, to add another unfortunate spin, perhaps even a damper on her success...She saw before her a pair of simple, black eyes just before crashing into their owner. It seemed that Bonnie had more momentum than she had originally assumed, causing the two to fly towards the mystery person. They came to an ungraceful halt, she lying atop him, "Not so yes..." She groaned. She began to rise up, unknowingly hovering just over the person she had collided with.

The first thing she noticed had to be those simple black eyes again, with a rather fair complexion serving as their backdrop. He had long, jet-black hair, tied back into a low ponytail, and upon looking down further, she came to notice a black jumpsuit, accompanied by a golden badge item that hung from the chest area. At the hips lied a belt imprint, a yin-yang sign present at the middle, as well as on the side of the loose Capri pants.

"You_ are_ going to get off of me, aren't you?" He asked bluntly, scowling out of irritation.

Backing hastily off of the young man, Bonnie stood quickly, her face getting a bit warmer. She was never very fond of...the opposite gender on a daily basis, and her she was touching one; that had to have broken about seven of her self-imposed rules.

There was no time to chat further, for the roar of a Beowolf sent the boy up to his black laced boots. He grabbed what -Bonnie recognized- as a chain scythe.

Jumping back as the creature of Grimm slashed at her, Bonnie twisted the middle part of her staff, separating the two as scythe-like blades dispersed on the ends. The girl decided she would use her Semblance to the best of her ability. As she threw one part of her staff into the air, her hardened arm gripped the deathly-sharp area of the blade, spin-launching it at the Grimm. The sharp blade of the weapon seemed to bury itself most comfortably into the throat of the Beowolf. Too bad, but it wouldn't be able to stay there for long. Bonnie grabbed the staff, ripping it out of the monster, then stabbing it into the one behind her, both creatures shattering upon their expiration.

"Jump."

Bonnie heard the boy call out to her, and at once, she heeded. The girl leaned back into a jump, managing to curl herself in once hitting midair so that she could land on the toes of her boots with her body on a slight forward lean. During that time, she had reached into her bag, drawing out a clear canister of a white substance. She opened it, expelling ice dust on the creatures just affront her, and thus, freezing them into place.

The black haired male whipped the scythe part of his weapon out, claiming the lives of the Grimm beside Bonnie. At the time of their deaths, they began to sink into the ground. It was a good tihng she didn't duck, for the weapon slammed into the dirt, its chain straightening out to become an actual scythe with a smaller blade where the ball part bended to the top of the blade.

It wasn't even a few seconds after when the air faintly smelled of smoke. What really alarmed Bonnie though, was the burning tree that had crushed the Grimm she had just been about to slash. Backing away in both surprise in alarm, she finally found her arm being harshly yanked back from that scene.

"Come on," The boy said simply over the perishing howls of the Grimm.

It hadn't taken long for the female to figure out who was responsible for burning the forest down, or at least that part of it.

"Okay, Weiss," Bonnie found herself murmuring whilst being led from the burning area of the forest, "I love ya, but you're really trying my patience."

"Are you gonna keep mumbling, or do I have to keep dragging you around listening to that?"

Having her words cut off, she looked up to see the ponytailed male glaring at her while holding her wrist with a rather tight grip.

"Oh, I'm sorry..." She stammered. As he let go of her arm, she noticed him rolling his eyes and shaking his head. Her jaw literally dropped, her eyes widening simultaneously, '_What in all Elsword's name did I do to this guy?' _ She thought, raising an eyebrow.

He looked over with another bristled expression directed at her.

Out of habit, she looked away, pretending that she had no reaction to his behavior. And even then, taking the passive route, it seemed that she had somehow done wrong in his eyes.

"Hmph," He huffed, continuing on, "Coward."

Had she heard him right? At this point, as the twosome continued down the forest in silence, all the girl wanted to know, was if she had wronged him in the past.

**A/N: Well there you have it! Forest of Failure.. ;-;**

**Santa: The forest is on fire, I'm stuck with an annoying, sarcastic, son of an Iren that calls me Carla.. Yeah. This is shaping up to be a great day. v.v"**

**Chained: Be lucky you don't have a ponytailed jerk…what's with that guy?! Did I do anything wrong…? D:(**

**Santa: Why don't you guys answer that for us. XD While you're at it, my dear Snowflakes. Why don't you tell us what you think? o3o Signing off!**


	7. Tumbling Tumbleweed

**A/N: Hello, all my boodiful followers! Since we've been dropped into the FOREST OF FAILURE.. It's time to fight our losing battle... Or is it a losing battle? Is it? Isn't it? READ AND FIND OUT! But before that.**

**Santa: I'd like to thank the Academy! ..for getting us ready!.. FOR the academy!**

**Chained: ...My pessimism is telling me that Bonnie won't make it out alive...welp, I guess Beacon is losing a student! I swear whoever wrote these lines is getting gutted like a-**

**Santa: FISH for your confidence, Bonnie! And I didn't write those, I promise..**

**Anywho! Enjoy!**

"The name's Ray."

After what seemed like an eternity of wishful silence, Bonnie finally looked up from the passing shrubs and baby trees to find that the obsidian haired young man had finally spoken to her.

Raising an eyebrow at her surprise, he quickly continued, "Don't think we're friends, alright? It's just customary that I give you my name if we're partners."

The girl's demeanor grew dull as she rolled her dark brown eyes. She continued to seemingly claw through vegetation. Never had she really had patience for people like him. Still, as the delay in response grew more stretched out with each passing cluster of seconds, she bluntly spoke up, "Bonnie." It may have seemed to be an odd thing to suddenly say, but the truth of the matter was that she was just answering a question that she knew would likely come with time.

"What?" The young man, known as Ray, questioned, having not heard her barely audible voice -not that he was really listening for it.

"Bonnie..." Her voice had risen a tad, but not really enough for him to hear.

"WHAT?" He prodded once more, his vocals, she found to be laced with a certain air of annoyance.

"It's Bonnie," She finally said loud enough for her partner to accurately hear, although a little louder than she had intended. Wait...That realization was just starting to dawn on her.

Partner...

As in the one she would be spending the next four years with. This ponytailed ball of attitude!

Bonnie slowly draped her hands over her face, letting out a soft, but miserable groan. '_This can't be happening...'_ She thought to herself, only for it to spill out externally, "This CANNOT be happening..."

Out of the loop, Ray sighed in response, shaking his head in pity, though not pity for her. "Of all the partners in Beacon to have..." He trailed in displeasure, "Why of all people, do I get someone like her?"

Bonnie had half a mind to stop in her tracks and tell the boy off for this attitude of his, but she took a deep breath instead, deciding not to let her anger get the better of her, unlike how it would Chantal.

"I just hope she won't be too mad..." The young female muttered under her breath. Her thoughts were found to be interrupted as she found her foot stepping out onto nothing but air. Hastily backing up, the black haired girl found a cliff leading to exactly where they had wanted it to, "The Forest Temple..." She stayed to herself, walking while now watching her footing. She was already to the temple, and she didn't need any more mishaps that could endager her, or detur the completion of her task.

"Hey, there it is," Ray sprang passed the corner of the girl's eye and into the air, landing farther from her, and within a closer range of the temple.

"That wasn't too hard!" The fiery, spirited female known as Yang Xiao Long chirped energetically to her new partner, Blake Belladonna.

"Well," Blake replied with a slight smile, "It's not like this place is very difficult to find."

The two continued to exchange a grin to one another, and from the display, Bonnie found a small smile to be crossing her lips.

"Hey, get a move on runt," Ray called, shaking his head with a certain irritable impatience.

So much for her short-lived happiness... Shaking her head as well, Bonnie walked over, thinking of what Glynda would think about their very...unfortunate team pairings. Whatever it was, it definitely could _not_ be good. '_Partner up with someone you get along with...'_ Bonnie recalled from the instructions. She released a sigh whilst grabbing the black queen piece before her new partner could object.

At that moment, a resounding high-pitched scream was heard throughout the area.

"This is so unattractive..." Bonnie muttered, cringing at the voice, and knowing exactly what was to come next.

"Some girl's in trouble!" Yang yelled, stepping away from the small temple, "Blake, what should we do?" It was one thing to scream for help in a forest where one could potentially be killed, but it was another thing if the voice of a seemingly 17 year old male made the shriek of a 14 year old girl.

As Blake's daze prompted Yang to ask more questions, Bonnie's eyes followed the yellow eyed female before tracing them back to the exact opposite direction; Jaune Arc. His destination? Ruby Rose.

"This place is full or idiots..." Ray rolled his eyes as the two crashed into one another, landing far-less-than gracefully on a thick branch.

"Did your sister just fall out of the sky?" Bonnie heard Blake call. It triggered another round of late realizations that began to slowly come into play.

A barely audible rumbling sound disrupted the ground...

Sister... Someone that one knows extremely well. A friend could also have been classified as just that. The only problem was, where was _her_ friend? As her heart rate began to rapidly increase, the girl had started scowering about for any sign of Chantal. What she found was much worse... She was nowhere to be found amongst the Ursa-riders and Death Stalker runaways.

The rumbling under the earth had gotten slightly worse over the elapsed time, but it continued to evade the capture of everyone's attention.

"I-I'll b-be right back..." Bonnie stammered as she started off in the direction of the forest, tucking the queen piece she had picked up into her pouch while dodging through a number of people.

"Why?" Ray questioned, unaware of her intentions, "The relics are right here."

His words had gone unnoticed. Bonnie had become lost in her own thoughts. '_I freaking told her!'_ She yelled inwardly, finding herself worrying, '_Anything could go wrong!' _The rumbling underfoot began to evolve, beoming a quaking tremor that rumbled beneath the feet of the test-takers, only signaling the build-up before a large, explosion-like sound was heard just behind Bonnie. It was too close for comfort, and as she turned her head instinctively to indulge her adrenaline-forced curiosity, yet another burst in the ground was made behind her, "What?!"

_"_WHY are you STILL HERE?!"

That voice was music to Bonnie's ears right now! It seemed her friend hadn't gotten into any danger after all. There was the situation of the Ursa -which had become the situation of the Ursai-, but she had managed to come out unscathed with her...Unofficial Partner, who was, as of now, trailing behind her. Boy, how she had hoped she would lose him in the confusion.

"Because we're partners," Iren replied casually, resting his hands in the pockets of his deep gray pants, "I think I've answered that question about five or six times now."

The familiar sound of her friend averted Bonnie's attention forward, to Chantal herself, despite the quaking coming from under her, "Chan?" She was too quiet to effectively be heard, and it seemed as though Chantal had yet to notice her presence -probably being too wrapped up in her own conflict.

"OH? REALLY? Well allow me to repeat myself too!" Huffed the brunette, shifting around and tucking her hands over her abdomen as the blonde just bipassed her in a leisurely saunter, making his way over to the relics. Taking in a deep breath, she readied herself to scream so that he would be able to hear her, even as...not-so-far away as the relics were, "I don't LIKE you!"

An explosion-like burst had interrupted the Bonnie from saying much else in the way of getting her friend's attention, for she needed to cover her face with her arms in protection. She had slipped into a state of momentary panic, however, she quickly managed to do away with such negative exhiliration. Now, with calmer eyes, she managed to assess the situation and act accordingly, which led her to dash away from the area in which the explosion-like force had just occured. It wasn't too far, but it was far enough, and fast enough as well, for only a moment after her transition, the spot in which she had just stood had suffered the same damaging effects of bursting rock and dirt. It seemed she was too far -at the moment- to attract the attention of either Chantal or her partner.

Iren plucked up the Black Queen piece from the risen platform, observing it for a moment, then tucking it under his arm before making his way back over. It seemed none of the events around now, nor Chantal's shouting could faze him. He truly was emotionally unbreakable it seemed,"Is it because I almost killed you?" He referred to the way his teammate had so rudely broadcasted her distaste for him.

"Ahp AHP!" Stomping her foot, the angered Chantal threw her waggling index finger into his direction, growling in response to his question, "We don't _**SPEAK**_ about that anymore!" It seemed that in all this confusion, Chantal was just as oblivious as her partnered seemed to be. She was set to say more by the look of her distasteful expression towards Iren, even starting her angry sentence with, "Furthermore-", but she found her words halved by the sound of her friend's desperate calling.

"CHAN!"

Chantal turned her head swiftly, her angered expression dropping into immediate seriousness as she stared out across the way. By this point, she had managed to see Bonnie sprinting away from some torn up ground that seemed to be hot on her trail. After witnessing that, the brunette had to start wondering if she had had a little too much coffee to drink this morning, and just happened to be suffering the painful, hallucinagenic after-effects.

The eyecontact between the two friends seemed to be enough to convey Bonnie's delight at having succeeded in grabbing Chantal's attention -though a sliver of annoyance from it having taken so long. Although happy she had some assurance, it was time to use it, so her body -still pumping with adrenaline- in that instant, utilized the momentum it had gained from the screeching halt to turn and face the attacking creature. "Gimme some leverage!" She lowered into the crouch that would most traditionally signify a leap.

"Count on it!" Chantal replied in shout, knowing exactly what Bonnie meant. Call it friend telepathy, or maybe the body language and command gave it away. Either way, as soon as Bonnie had made the jump -which was acquainted with a small flip-, Chantal took a hint, raising her hands to supply Bonnie with the same anti-gravitational blessing that her semblance had granted herself with.

As a result, Bonnie was able to increase altitude, as well as maintain it much better than any normal jump could allow. It was like weightlessness, and it allowed Bonnie to stay out of harm's way while retaining her balance in the air -the latter taking an almost impossible amount of time to learn due to Chantal's lack of concentration being inadequate to sustain her for too long. In fact, back in training she could only keep Bonnie in air for about three seconds.

Concentration wasn't being made easy for the brunette now either though, thanks to the critical sounding blonde just to her left. All she could hear in her ear whilst attempting focus were 'hms' and 'huh's.

"Huh..." Iren uttered again, finally continuing on to speak this time around, "So this is Bonnabel then... Not as Ursa-y as I expected..."

"Shit Sherlock...First name no..."

"Huh..?"

The kind of answer she expected. She really needed to start being a bit more careful about referencing things from her old world, didn't she? "Nothing, dumb-bat..."

"Wow, rude...I'm just wounded...Utterly wounded..."

"You'll REALLY be utterly wounded if you don't let me fucking concentrate."

Giving up on annoying his new partner for now, Iren decided she had a point. It was time to stop goofing off, and maybe kick things into high gear. From what he had observed, Grimm were running rampant around this part of the forest, and not just those simple Ursai or a Beowolves here and there. These were all kinds of -much larger- variations. He watched Bonnie hover just overtop the Grimm, trying to make observations of his own at the same time.

Bonnie, by this time, had slowly flipped upside down by this point, head tilted slightly upwards to clearly see the ground without becoming lightheaded in the process. This way, she could follow the movements of the mystery monster, and maybe get a clue as to what it was. She found swellings in the ground that were made noticeable by the plowed dirt in its wake. It seemed that this monster was circling impatiently below her, resembling a shark circling a piece of meat just out of reach.

She hadn't been the only one to notice this odd movement, however, "Okay...What is that thing..." Iren trailed, narrowing his eye towards it quizically whilst keeping a mildly dull expression otherwise.

"How should I know?" Chantal huffed in reply. She was trying to concentrate. She really was. This pain of a poor attention span was making this ridiculously troublesome, "It won't come above ground..." She never turned to the blonde while speaking, rather she kept her gaze locked forward in strict tunnel-vision, as to avoid any outside attention-grabbing that would shake her focus.

"Maybe it can stay underground," A voice spoke up.

Bonnie and Iren directed their gazes to the owner of the voice to find him running up to Chantal and he.

It was Ray. He looked to the distracted creature in the ground analytically, before peering to the brunette, "That's your semblance, right?"

She was hesitant to answer, and not just because of the usual concentration excuse, but because she -as stated once before- was proud of her memory, and if memory served her correctly, this voice was a difficult one to forget. A sour taste came rolling onto her tongue as she venomously replied, "Yeah."

"Does it work the other way?" He seemed to be referring to adding gravitational pull, rather than just ridding them. It seemed he was putting a good effort forward in terms of the suppression of his impatience.

Finally allowing Bonnie to touch down near the rest of the team, Chantal was able to shift her attention to Ray, an unmistakeably hostile glint in her eye as her eyebrows fell flatly and sharply closer to her eyes, "Why?"

"Ah!" Bonnie turned to her, realization donning on her as she assembled the pieces of Ray's incomplete plan, "Chanie, weigh it down!"

Ray folded his arms, glancing over at the swelling the ground that had come to a complete stop due to the creature's target now being out of sight. Bonnie had nailed his plan on the head, prompting his continuation of her demand, "It won't be able to move that way."

"It shouldn't..." Bonnie mumbled, not feeling very confident in her friend's ability. No, not her semblance ability, but her ability to keep concentration for that long. Since it was mentioned now, though, how was Chantal supposed to keep her semblance up? This plan was already beginning to fall apart in Bonnie's mind, and so she added, "Do it for as long as you can, Chan..."

"Alright, alright..." Moving backwards, Chantal raised her hands up in defeat, palms facing the three that looked to her expectantly, "But if I'm weighing that thing down for an indefinite amount of time...I doubt I can just magically skip behind you guys wherever you go!"

Iren turned, nodding his head in understanding, "Leave that to me. Your life's in my capable hands." It seemed he had something in mind; a plan perhaps.

"Right... Like Hell I'm leaving my life in your grubby mitts..." Regardless of her protesting, she sucked in a breath anyway. She had to hope and pray that she could put stock in these guys. Her eyes began to waver as she stared at the mysterious, approaching tunneler, as directed by the tilling ground on the surface. She only said one other thing, "Here we go..." Suddenly, it seemed like the weight around the general area of the underground menace began to have an undetermined fold of increase, beoming intensely heavy and ultimately stopping the advancement of the Grimm. The pieces of soft soil that now lied atop the crust seemed to flatten instantaneously against the ground. Great! So it had worked!

Quickly solving the problem of Chantal's newfound inability to move quickly with ease, Iren simply repeated her own words, "Yeah, here we go." He swiped her up with a strong arm around the waist and pulled her up off the ground with ease, only to pull her securely against his form as he sprinted towards the platform of solid ground near the relics. There, it should have been impossible for the tunneling monster to reach them through the strong material.

"Get off of me!" Chantal growled uncomfortably. She didn't seem to notice that her sudden demand and thrash of discomfort allowed the Grimm semi-mobility, but Iren did.

"Ah ah ah," He taunted in mock disappointment, "Keep focusing." He seemed to shake his head, tsk'ing at Chantal's lack of concentration while his lime green eye darted over to the movement coming from the monster over yonder.

Picking up on his signal, she turned her gaze back slightly. Her brown orbs narrowed in response to her noticing the ground beginning to shake once again, and with a faint, nervous laugh, and a large bead of sweat atop the skin of her cheek, she bit back and swallowed down any lingering insults or stiff demands to regain her concentration.

Struggling for control once more, the monster began to struggle under what seemed to be its own weight. Bonnie found herself staring, likely dazed for a moment, until that state was shattered by the familiar shoulder bump of an even more familiar ponytail wearing young man.

"You comin', runt?" Ray smirked, his hands in his pockets as he continued off to the apparent meeting place where Iren had traveled, which just happened to be where -seemingly- each and every student had gathered.

Ignoring the hissing sounds that emitted from the now frozen Death Stalker and crowing from the Nevermore overhead, the black haired girl couldn't help but marvel at the characters she had come to know and love, even if the series was currently 10 episodes in, what with the time and ages being stopped in their world. Bonnie's head turned to the well-known heiress, and her favorite team RWBY character on top of that, Weiss Schnee, the only RWBY character that she had a soft spot for -even if everyone else despised her. Of course, over the passed few episodes, she had poven herself to be...hate-worthy, but Bonnie knew in her heart that the girl was being misjudged too quickly and-

"Ugh...As if things couldn't get any worse..." The voice of Kara something or another-she could never remember the voice actress' last name- in Weiss' vocal chords. She spoke in a sharp tone, her left hand pinching the bridge of her nose in utter frustration. That was new. After all the times Bonnie had watched the episodes, and had memorized the quotes, even attempting to voice them herself, she had never heard that line before. What was worse, it was directed towards a certain...type of person.

Chantal, still being bound to her duty of staring forward, despite her discomfort in being held by Iren, twitched in movement slightly, her curiosity getting the best of her, "What? What couldn't get any worse? Is it that who I think it is? GOSH, I HATE THAT BITCH!" Speaking of hatred towards Weiss, it seemed like that was a prime example.

"Just focus on your mental problem," Iren scoffed, covering her mouth with his free hand, and thus causing the dull scent of an explosive that lingered from their earlier fight with the Ursai to violate her airways. Curse Iren and his firepower gloves... It had notably sounded like he had attempted to call her challenged though.

"Oh!" A girl in the front of the crowd of students called in a delightedly bitter tone, the most prominent feature being the animal ears that were perched atop her head, "That was towards us, wasn't it? So I'm guessing you're not too fond of the Faunus, huh?" Putting her hands on her hips, the girl sassily sauntered over to the white haired female, her thin tail waving mischeviously behind her. A smirk crossed the Faunus's face as Weiss proceeded to roll her eyes and folding her arms.

"I don't have time for this nonesense," She replied peevishly at both females who had made a comment. A new tone was evident in her voice; one of anger, which confused Bonnie to no end.

'_I...don't get it...'_ Bonnie said inwardly. She honestly didn't. In the episodes she had seen, Weiss had shown no type of animosity towards Blake, who was a Faunus herself. Well, that hadn't exactly been confirmed as of yet, but the bow twitching that Bonnie had noticed in all of her times watching the videos had to mean sometihng, even making it painfully clear to Chantal, who had already shut the idea down completely. They both had their theories, it seemed. More importantly, one of the two females had spoken out of turn, causing Bonnie to give a lazy glare to Chantal, who was one of them.

Fortunately for the chartreuse girl, her attention was still on the one she was weighing down, so the brunt of the glare went unnoticed. Regardless, she still managed to catch a glimpse of the act itself through her peripheral vision, so she was compelled to keep quiet.

"Uh, guys..." The voice of Miles Luna filled Bonnie's ears as the increased number of students turned their heads to Jaune Arc, Bonnie's least favorite character. How he even managed to get into the school, she would never know, "That thing's circling back...what do we do...?" Finally, the boy was proving his worth by setting the odd plotline back on track. Now, all that was left was...

"Is that Jaune? Is Jaune actually talking and being listened to?" Okay, so it was fine to have criticism now, right? After all, she kept it quiet and to herself, outside of the public's earshot, "Oh, this has gone to shit." Her murmuring was giving her a little amusement. She sort of needed it, just to get a grip on a more relaxed nature. After all, the overuse of her semblance was forcing a headache, and the concentration was getting a little difficult to maintain. What gives anyway?! This was supposed to have been a momentary halt to draw the thing out of hiding once they were safe on solid ground! This conversation made that original purpose run over!

"Look," Weiss started, proceeding to complete her line, despite being on delayed schedule, "Th-"

"No, no," The Faunus from before yelled, smirk growing wider as she interrupted the white haired heiress, "We don't need _you_ saying anything, now do we?"

"Ugh," Weiss chided, turning her nose upward into the air, "Can you even hear yourself right now?" She was obviously not happy about being interrupted, and neither was Bonnie.

_'T-th-th-the storyline!'_ Bonnie shrieked in her mind. Everything was being ruined by some unknown force trying to ruin her life! Maybe the girl was just being a bit dramatic, but if the teams didn't get back on track in the next minute, they would have a whole lot more problems, most of which were much more severe than arguements.

"Oh, I can hear myself just fine, girly," The Faunus's smirk grew even wider, until a pair of sharp fangs embedded with the rest of her teeth came into view, "The point is-"

"Ah...g-guys..." Jaune urged, taking glances at the Death Stalker and Nevermore before looking back to the assembled partnerships that had all gathered.

For once, Bonnie agreed with the boy she deemed as useless; they needed to get a move on _now._ But how? Weiss led up to Ruby's line, but what could they do if the memorized quote was-

Bonnie paled -though there was not much color leaving her dark skin- as she came to the realization of what she would have to do, "Um...ah..." The girl mumbled almost inaudibly, fiddling with her fingers. Finally clearing her throat, Bonnie spoke out, "L-look, there's no sense in dillydallying. Our objective is right in front of us."

All chatter dimmed into silence, and all the heads of various heights, genders, and hues seemed to turn simultaneously to glance at Bonnie, some of their heights easily towering over her.

Her skin color gew even lighter as her eyes widened. At once, she quickly pointed to the chess pieces, turning her gaze to the groud in fear as her heart rate quickened.

The silence shattered just then, changing to the sound of Chantal's hysterical laughter. She just couldn't resist the urge to crack up, mainly at the awkward silence that had risen after Bonnie's impersionation! Not being able to see it maybe just made it all the more funny! Her laugh was slightly muffled by Iren's gloves, but she laughed so loudly that it was still at a decent volume. Unbeknownst to she, nor the others, her lack of concentration had forced her to release the gravitational ties she had kept to the underground creature. Its struggling came to a halt, and it was free to move. For Chantal, there came a much-needed feeling of relief that washed over her. It was refreshing, especially since she had began feeling the slightest bit light-headed.

"She's right," The voice of Lindsay Tuggey-er...Ruby Rose's speech finally began, luckily taking the unwanted attention away from the dark skinned female -aside from two of three side glances still coming her way-, "Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs...there's no point in fighting these things."

"Run and live," Jaune the coward piped up nervously, "That's an idea I can get behind."

'_I bet it is...'_ Bonnie mentally rolled her eyes, taking care to keep her sigh light so that she could prevent any further attention cast to her.

The freed creature was letting its presence become known as the remaining students began to take the pieces of their choice, for the underground monster practically slammed into the stone of the forest temple, forcing the stone to jolt abruptly, and some to even lose their balance.

"Damn it.." Chantal trailed quietly to herself. She hadn't the strength to regain her hold on the beast. It was like with the physical strain, concentration was near impossible. In fact, she was beginning to feel a little disoriented, but would never show it.

"Time we left," Lie Ren began, much to Bonnie's glee.

"But..." A concerned student hesitantly began, "What about-"

"We'll handle it," Ray stepped up to reply for them collectively, a raised brow and smirk present on his features, "Go ahead."

Bonnie's head darted over to her ponytailed teammate in disbelief. Was the boy actually serious!? Of course, he could only speak with himself and his partner -even though it was likely that Iren and Chantal would stick around-, but she didn't think that the two of them could honestly handle something as violent and -seemingly big as that underground creature! He must have gone insane for even thinking such.

"Right, we'll leave them to you," Ruby smiled, a determined air in her voice that became their team support. The leads now began to leave with a 15-year-old leading the front. At the moment, Yang and Blake disappeared from view, Bonnie shot a cold glare at Chantal, who was immersing herself with an engaging conversation with Iren.

"We'll fight too, right, partner?" Iren, questioned, looking down at Chantal, whom he had finally set down, and nudging his shoulder against her, much to her disdain.

She passed him a dangerously sharp gaze, raising a brow, "I don't think I want to fight with you...Last time you almost..."

"I thought...we didn't talk about that?"

"I CAN! I was the one you almost KILLED! That grants me PERMISSION!" If only she could drag this altercation out for a bit longer, she could recooperate from the brief rest time.

"Touchy touchy...Geez...I'm sorry," Huffed the fair haired man through his trademarked sarcasm.

Turning her head to the side, she uttered a couple of chords in a quiet, sing-stong tone whilst fighting the urge to smile, lest the severity of her words be practically nulled, "It's too late to apologi-"

"Chantal Marissa Aidens," Bonnie sternly interrupted, causing her friend to jolt in shock.

Immediately, having her name being called, the brunette slowly stopped her lyrical and stiffened as she turned to Bonnie as though looking at her own mother, "Uhm...Y-Yeah...?"

"Pffft...Marissa?" Came the sound of the gray-wearing male's subtle snorting at the expense of his new teammate.

Whipping around at a seemingly inhuman speed, she shot him a surprisingly nasty glare with her brown eyes, "Keep fucking laughing, Iren. You just keep laughing, and I swear I will come across this nonexistent table and-"

"Muck up the _rest_ of the storyline?" Bonnie had asked quietly enough so that Iren wouldn't be able to hear, but she would.

Iren, managing to take a hint, moved over a little, meeting up with Ray, whom had moved near him.

Seeing that Iren had walked away now, the black haired girl had even more leway to display her displeasure. She seemed to an await an answer though, tapping her steel-bottomed boots on the ground with an audible clanging sound as she recollected the memories of Chantal's comments to Weiss. Completely uncalled for an unnecessary? Definitely. When no answer came, Bonnie continued, her tone light and airy, despite the scolding look in her eyes, "Realize that with every sentence, you distort the plotline, mkay?"

"Yeah, yeah..." Huffed the scolded girl, as she folded her arms and motioned as though shamefully kicking at a pebble. It would leave the two males in the dark -if they attempted to eavesdrop-, but hey, they shouldn't have been eavesdropping in the first place.

_**CRACK-ACK**_

The abrupt sound of chipping stone and hard ground falling loose filled the air, faint at first, but growing louder with each passing moment. It seemed, being freed, the seemingly forgotten creature had gotten fed up with awaiting its pray to just step off of the harder ground of the temple, and decided to take a more direct approach. Its body shot out of the ground, sun peking through the clouds to shed some light on this creature.

"A Tommelise..." Things seemed to move in slow motion, and in that split second, Bonnie realized what the creature was almost instantly thanks to Emmett's teachings. They would almost always be in hibernation, though loud noises could trigger their early awakenings. It all made sense now, or at least all but one thing. Bulky and large, and resembling a mole, of course, while having the traditional Grimm mask laced over its face. These creatures were haters of light, and very violent in nature. So why would it just jump straight out of the ground and into broad sunlight? She could only guess that it was a rash decision on its part out of impatience and irritation.

Like most animalistic creatures could, this Tommelise had spotted the weak link, causing it to dive inwards towards Chantal -who was luckily standing on the inside of her gathered teammates-.

"Don't think so.."

Almost out of nowhere, Iren shifted his body to move swiftly into a 180 degree turn. His gloves, which appeared simple and sleek, bulked up in a moments noticed, their base color -gray- being blotched with bright, lime colors. His thumb pressed inwards, against a hidden button towards the palm area of his weapon, triggering a new effect that was different from the usual hard-hitting punches he dished out on a usual. With this, when he made the punch forward towards the Tommelise, a green colored beam shot out. It was thin, almost nonexistent, and faded away as though it were nothing, but a second after, when the monster had gotten around a foot closer, the now vanished beam was replaced with an enormous, round but thick and rigid beam that crashed directly into the underbelly of the Grimm. From that one large blast -which hadn't been enough to do away with the Grimm, due to its large size and thick hide-, a string of fluid, smaller bullets began to fire out from Iren's punching motions, flying out from his knuckle-area.

The blast sent the Grimm flying backwards, yes, but it also forced it into spinning, which made hitting a vunerable spot that much more difficult, being that it was in constant rotation between the thick but bare underbelly and plated, protected top. This also meant that the bullets he sent -now six and counting- were either smashing against the plates and ricoheting off, or hitting the more vunerable spot. It seemed almost like Iren had no aim anymore.

Chantal stood, gripping her chest and breathing out a heavy exhale. To think that thing was that close! She would have thanked Iren...but no, she wouldn't have. She would just...repay him by passing up her next chance to insult him.

"That should keep it above ground," Ray concluded, bending his knees deeply into a crouch, as to ready himself for a highspeed sprint. In a moment's notice, he was off, running across the ground, and never even being tripped up by the toiled up ground, though it slowed him only slightly. He ran around the Grimm, taking in the situation from each angle so that he could look for an opening to strike.

"HEY!" Chantal called out, cupping her hands whilst maintaining a slight glare, "You can't join Iren right now! He'll kill you!" It was a state of mind that she referred to as Trigger Happy, the condition that nearly killed her when they had fought with the Ursai. It's like an uncontrollable pop that sparks to life when his first shot had been fired. From there...Well, unless Ray wanted to end up nearly killed, or worse, he probably shouldn't interrupt him, "You can't interfere until he's fired all 25 shot-"

_**CRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRK**_

The sound of the cracking and shrieking not only snapped Bonnie from her trance, but also jolted Chantal into attention. She hadn't paid any attention whatsoever to the other present Grimm, and Bonnie had merely forgotten it while daunted by the appearance of the Tommelise.

_**KSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH!**_

"H-Hey, Bonnie!" Chantal called, "What do we do?"

By then, it was too late. The Death Stalker, which it had mercilessly shattered the ice prison in which it had been frozen, was free, and it started to move about, searching for its next victim.

**A/N: **

**Santa: Well.. At least we picked up the same pieces..? But I guess that's pretty insignificant if we don't make it out. :T Deathstalker, Tumbledore, and Iren all want us dead... And I want Ray dead...Along with Iren.**

**Chained:Well that's not very nice...and...Tommelise... **

**Santa: That's what I said! The Tumbleweed!**

**Chained: Tommelise...**

**Santa: Tumbly?**

**Chained: ...Tomm-i-lese**

**Santa: TUMBLR!**

**Chained: TOMMILESE.**

**Santa: Tumbleesic..**

**Chained: Tommilese**

**Santa: Thumbelina...**

**Chained: Tommi...LESE!**

**Santa: SCREW IT! IT'S TUMBLESHIT.**

**Chained: ...Oh Elsword...**

**ANYWAY! We hope you've enjoyed this and stuff. G'bye snowflakes!**


	8. Tuck and Tumble!

**A/N: HELLOOOOO, LITTLE SNOWFLAKES! Welcome to Chapter 8 of #RedLikeRasberries ! **

**Warning: That Hashtag is not actually a thing and if you attempt to visit it on Instagram or Twitter, it likely will not yield results. **

**Santa: 'Ello there, dearies, and welcome to the next installment of Red Like Raspberries! Who's ready to see some Tumbleweed vs. Test Examinees action!?**

**Chained: I know I'm not! TOMMELISE GOSH DARNIT! WARNING, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO IMITATE, RECREATE, OR REINCARNATE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING STUNTS TO AVOID GLOCOMA, DIZZYNESS, DEATH, AND JAY WALKING SYNDROME. #RedLikeRaspberries IS NOW IN STORES BUT CAN PUT OTHERS AT RISK USE AT YOUR OWN DISGRETION, BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED. You...you know what...I'm off the script. **

**Santa: Jesus Christ... Y.. You know.. I.. *Speechless* **

"Watch it!"

Bonnie's warning to Ray pertaining to the now free Death Stalker did not go unheeded. At once, the ebony haired young man flipped up and into the air, the Grimm's sluggish reaction resulting in its stinger driving the ground where he once was. Using the gained leverage, Ray flipped down, grabbing onto the rooted tail of the beast while transforming his chain-scythe into its scythe form. The process was shot. The stinger, nearly as fast -if not faster- than it had stricken, uprooted itself from the dirt, swinging Ray off. Fortunately, for him, he landed with relative ease beside Iren, readying his weapon as the beast charged towards him.

"That's the wrong way!" The bondi colored girl hissed under her breath while sprinting forward towards her partner. As she jumped in front of Ray, her palms faced outwards towards the ground, she bent her arms and right leg slightly while taking a deep breath. At that moment, a dark blue wall of aura materialized before the both of them, forcing the Death Stalker to bounce back. It seemed the wall wasn't tall enough to accurately eliminate all possibility of a threat however, for the returning Grimm was able to lift its tail up and into she and Ray's range.

"Guess it's my turn..." Iren murmured, a subtle click sounding from the side of his gauntlents as he reloaded the ammo chamber located near the top of his wrist. He had used up all twenty five shots for that round, so it clicked out of the palm slot as though it were spitting up the useless metal waste, "Taking aim..." He briefly relayed. Abruptly, he let loose a thrust of his dominant hand; rarely enough, his left hand, in the form of a punch, sending out one bullet, followed by his right first releasing another. The alterations of his two punching fists became quicker and more rapid, just as it had with the Tommelise. He had to get close to continue his shots, and that way he could also make sure the Death Stalker didn't flee from his range, especially since that could cause an issue. See this Trigger Happy thing, the one that Chantal had so briefly expressed disgust towards previously, was far from just as preference, it was a mental necessity. Once he fired that first shot, it mattered not what obstacle was in his path, how ineffective it proved to be, or -as in a previous case- whether it was friend or foe in the line of fire. It was impossible for him to stop.

Chantal was well aware of this, and for that reason, although she made not the movement to aid in their combat against the Scorpion-shaped grimm -despite her willingness-, she kept a close eye out for her partner. Unlike the other two, she knew what he was capable of, and whether she constantly felt the need to prove her distaste for him or not, she had monitored.

Seeing as the majority of the danger Iren could pose was guided towards the Death Stalker, however, she lightened up gradually until reaching her usual bubbly disposition, "Wooo!" She cheered loudly, throwing her arms up, "Good hustle, guys! Good hustle!" At this rate, when Iren completed his rounds, well that Death Stalker would be right back on cue. Problem solved!

_**THUD**_

The sudden sound of weight against the ground sent a shiver up Chantal's spine. She turned her head up slightly to the side slowly, lowering her dimming brown eyes over to the cause. The Tommelise seemed to have finally had gravity get the best of it after being knocked into the air by Iren, and it had crashed down against the ground.

The confident stylings of the young brunette came into play, and she tucked her hands against her hips like Rosa had once done similarly. One foot in front of the other, she strut her way over to the incapacitated grimm, and she lit up a dashing grin, "Not so tough now, are ya? That's right!"

"That dumbass..." Ray muttered in disbelief as he and Bonnie leaped from Iren's line of fire -lest they both be riddled with bullets.

"Idiot..." Bonnie mumbled simultaneously, side glancing the Death Stalker as it fled from its shooter to the upper mountains; its destination. With that, the target was finally back on course, give or take a couple of seconds. Hopefully, the Grimm would be right on time, lining up accurately with the storyline. Now if only Chantal wouldn't do something stupid...

"Bwahahaha!" Mocked the brunette in question, laughing evily as she clenched her fists together at her sides, "This is why you mustn't pick a fight with the Chartreuse Demon! WAHAHA!" When all seemed to be won, she seemed to feel alot more comfortable being wacky. That mildly overdramatic laugh and facade aside, she delivered a kick -more of a prod- to the exposed, plush side of the Grimm.

Much to her surprise, it seemed immediately alert, screeching as it rolled up to attention. She even screamed in unison! First reaction of a fighter would be? Grab and utilize their weapon! She snatched her axe out to action, supplying the object with a good amount of her own physical power as she slammed one side of the dual-bladed head onto the shrieking Tommelise. It was an adequate amount of force, and luckily, it seemed to respond the way she had hoped. It flinched. Its eyes closed, and she could only assume that she had done a good amount of damage. That was, until its eyes shot open, and it supplied her with a sharp, agitated look while growling ferociously.

It shot its sharp claws up to take its own turn to strike, but luckily, it hadn't the chance. A small explosion lifted into the air, prompting a black blur to scoop the brunette female under its arm and dash out to safety.

It was none other than Ray, who had dispersed a chain link from his scythe, placing it at his lips and biting one side of it, which caused it to split into two equal sections. The half link seemed to have some sort of violent properties, for as he threw the object at the Tommelise, it developed a red hue, exploding before it even reached the ground while Ray had taken advantage of the moment to take Chantal out of harm's way. He even took time between the rescue to store away the unused second half link back with the rest of the chains.

Slowly, Chantal peered over her shoulder, eyes lighting up in reaction to the bright qualities of the explosion. Her breath was sharp, staggering in and barely releasing, all because of a single realization. That could have been it for her. A pent up lump was forced down her throat as she made an attempt to calm her racing nerves. It was difficult; the clutch she had on her axe handled strengthed, and the fist she had against Ray burried unconsciously into him as well.

"...Th...Thank..." Wait. That's when it dawned on her. Was she really about to say thank you? To Ray? Sure, he saved her life, but that little fire of pride hadn't been snuffed out completely by that Tommelise. "I hope you know, I did NOT need your help," She protested strongly, despite having been shuddering just moments ago, "Put me down!"

Rolling his eyes with a smirk, the black haired boy did exactly as the female had requested; he put her down. Well more so, he completely severed his grip -not loosened- and sent the angry brunette tumbling into the dirt. He hadn't even slowed down beforehand.

"There," His smirk grew broader as he came to a complete stop, turning to walk over to the rest of the examinees, "Now that's much better, isn't it?" He peered to the grounded Chantal.

"AGHH! You smug, ponytailed creep!" She began, enraged and flailing, but still hopping to her feet.

Iren, whom had finally set off the last of his rounds moments ago, came over in a casual jog, same dull look on his face as he took in the altercation, "Oh good, you saved her. I thought I'd have to."

It struck another nerve, an enlarged anger mark swelling off to the side of Chantal's head as she now turned her wrath on Iren, "I didn't need to be saved!" After reaching that small yet abrupt climax of her miniature temper tantrum, she withdrew into a subtle pout.

"Ok..." Bonnie, having been quiet since the Ray rescue, trudged up the semi-steep hill to the others, her staff being both apart and in her hands. "So, we need a plan. Does anyone have one?"

Another thud sounded off, turning the four heads to their opponent.

The Tommelise let out a bitter screech of annoyance, burrowing itself in the ground once more. As a result of its movements both above and below the ground, she could conclude that the beast seemed to be alot swifter underground. The final conclusion she'd arrived at from the gathered information? Stop the Tommelise long enough to defeat it.

"Chan," Bonnie called absentmindedly as she crouched down into a running positioning she had imitated from cross country runners, staring into what seemed like her impending doom.

The called brunette shifted her head, inquiring with a dazed, "Hum?"

"I'm slowing it down," With that, the young female sprinted with her hands at her sides and torso lined up with her hips for better wind resistance (according to Rosa). She stored her staff parts into her pack and she took out something else.

The Tommelise, while underground, began to bring up the dirt around it as it had done before, causing earth-shaking bursts.

Bonnie seemed to take this into consideration as she brought out her new weapon, -a canister full of a blue-white substance- to her front, wrapping both her hands around it. As she inched closer, she jumped a few feet in front of the beast, twisting the glass canister by its black edges.

At once, the Tommelise made itself known, springing directly up under Bonnie with its mouth opened mere feet away from her head -being that Bonnie had been stationed upside down.

It almost looked like a very brief standoff between the two before Bonnie's partially opened Cylindrical canister fell agape completely, dispersing its contents onto Bonnie's target.

The open-mouthed Tommelise creeched once more as the substance made contact with its fur, ice materializing on and below it while Bonnie, with a now empty ice dust canister, flipped right side up to touch down on the ground.

"Right! I'll take the opportunity!" Thinking that moment to be a better time than ever to dispose of it, and prove her combat skills were better than what the group had thus far allowed her to display, she took to action. The Tommelise was frozen in Bonnie's ice dust, so she could just take an easy advantage, right? She slid in front of it, planning on doing just that as she reared back to swing her axe. Her aim was towards the unprotected underbelly, which was just so generously displayed to her and even suspended in air as a perfect target thanks to the ice. She would make this hit a good one that would really count!

As she lashed the axe forward, a firm grip on the center, the ice shattered... It wasn't because of the blunt force of her weapon, because the blade of her axe -nor any other part of it- hadn't even made contact with the beast yet! The ice encasing it just... Broke and shattered all on its own! It must not have been enough to keep it at bay for too long.

"What is _with_ this friggin' LUCK!?" She growled harshly in adrenaline filled distress as the beast lashed out. Its teeth dug into the top of the blade. "Hell no you don't," Chantal spat, hooking her hand down to the lever that forced one of the three compartments around the top of the bulky axe pole to display a tiny green light. That light roughly translated to 'Ready for Action'. Lifting her fingers to the trigger just underneath, she slammed her index finger into it twice or thrice. Bullets came sparking from the barrel with the utmost amount of force at point blank range, and due to the angle that said barrel rested at in correspondance to the location of the Tommelise's slightly ajar mouth and biting jaw, those bullets blasted straight into its mouth.

Its shock was enough to grant Chantal release, and she went jumping backwards to stand next to Bonnie, "Eww...Tumbleweed drool..." She huffed in displeasure while shaking her hand in disgust.

The Tomelise writhed and shrieked, seeming to have lost its bearings from the shock of the attack. A rather decent opening that the other two participants hadn't overlooked.

"Looks like they were nice enough to give us a cue," Iren stated blandly. He sideglanced to Ray, raising a gauze-covered thumb over to nudge in the direction of the Tommelise.

"Nicest thing they've done for us all day." Ray's habitual smirk returned to his lips as he darted forward, crouching down before bounding into the air, landing on the tips of his boots before leaping once more. Finally, he executed one final jump, propelling himself high into the air.

"Out of the way!" He yelled to the two females behind the Tommelise. They did _not_ want to be near the Grimm with what was coming to it.

Heeding Ray, yet not moving immediately, Chantal directed her attention to her partner, brown eyes narrowing, "Iren...You...Prick..."

He was locking and loading his glove-like gauntlents, and reaching over to his left wrist with his right, he grabbed a bulkier part of the glove bottom. It was a steel gray color and stuck out like a rectangular tab until he grabbed it between his index and thumb, then folded it forward. From that simple gesture, his left hand sparked green around the wrist and knuckle.

"What, what?" Bonnie asked quicker than usual. It had seemed as though the adrenaline from her head being a reenactment from a certain magical girl anime had not worn off yet as she felt herself unable to stay still. Instead, the girl slightly leaned from side to side, keeping herself on her toes. Literally.

"First of all...Calm your shit...Second of all..." Narrowing her light brown eyes, Chantal huffed in readying herself for the explanation ahead, "Iren and I have been going back and forward now about how he almost killed me, and it wasn't exactly some dumb inside joke..." She pointed towards the little green glow that made itself known even from the further distance as they stood, "That's a little thing called his One Shotter, I think... And boy does it live up to its name. Remember that little green laser he used earlier?"

"To be honest...no..." That was the truth. At the time of its first use, Bonnie had been more or less occupied by the classification of the Grimm and strategizing ways to defeat it.

"Ahh..." A bead of sweat dropped down Chantal's cheek, "Well that just ruins my informative screenplay kind of thing..." She folded her arms for a second, sighing, "Oh well, I guess he can show you better than I can tell you...But you might wanna..._Back the Hell out of the way!_" She drew her hands up, dashing off to the right.

Bonnie caught her signal, and without hesitation, rushed to the left near the same time as her friend. She kept her eyes peeled to see just what all the worry was about.

Having been standing in a low, sturdy crouched positioning, Iren withdrew his fist, then punched forward once. A thin, pin-sized green beam came into view just barely, advancing about a foot before fading into view. Those that didn't know any better would assume that whatever he had up his sleeve had failed. Iren, however, merely stood back up to his full height, keeping an eye on the Tommelise for a brief moment of about three to four seconds. As it writhed upwards in a single pulse that seemed to catch Iren's attention, Iren took and steadied his left arm with his right hand. He gripped around the elbow, just a little lower and onto his forearm. A little green light blinked from behind the gauze of his left bicept, but it was far too covered to catch any attention.

His body tensed, facial expression and all, firming a straight face as he glared straight forward as though bracing, "Hah!" A strong call as the area around where the tiny laser had vanised gave way to an enormous beam that seemed to erupt out of thin air. It shot forward, leaving a ravaged ground in its wake as it continued to grow, and smash directly into the Tommelise. The grimm was engulfed in a green color, and it continued this way, all the portions of the blast that had passed it by fading into oblivion.

Bonnie's eyes widened as she took in sight of the powerful, cannon-like blast, watching it all the way up until it faded out completely.

"That's it." A certain black haired male murmured, having been close to the blast itself. When it seemed as though his hand was to touch it, he flipped up several times, landing when the shot had disappeared while pressing a button on his scythe. Suddenly, two short and flat bars shot out of the weapon's staff, sharply turning horizontally, then back down as they created a grip opening for the his hands.

Gripping both handles, he twisted his weapon, positioning it to the point where the blade of the scythe was behind him, facing skyward while the Tommelise came flying back towards him -compliments of Iren's cannon blast. At once, he ran towards it, ducking and kneeling on one knee as the body of the Tommelise flew under him. It slashed right in the middle of his blade. Although there was some resistance, Ray had adequately planned for that, and gripping the handles tightly, he forced his way through to completely sever the Grimm in half, thus burying a portion of his scythe blade into the ground.

It uttered its final shriek, which echoed through the fours ears collectively, and finally rested against the ground, sinking as though pooling into the earth then dispersing into the air as smoke.

"Well then..." Bonnie trailed, watching the whole ordeal from beside Chantal as her adrenaline finally subsided. "That went...rather smoothly...don't you think?"

"Pffft..." Chantal stubbornly turned her head to the side, rolling her eyes, "T'was alright...I guess..." She shifted her back to face the team, walking away with bitter strides, "Let's just go pass this test!"

* * *

><p>"Iren Rivet,"<p>

So the first name was called.

Iren casually turned his head to glance up at the utterance of his name, a lazy look of disinterest that greatly contrasted the rest of the team.

Bonnie's head had shot up quickly, as just one example, looking to be in absolute despair.

None of them really expected it to be their turn so soon, especially considering Professor Ozpin had just finished up listing the names and team leader for...What was it... 'lavender' or 'lilac'? Something of the sort.

"Finally it's our turn," Chimed a clearly excited Chantal as she practically squirmed in place.

"Bonnie Owens, Ray Zachary, and Chantal Aidens."

Iren seemed to start his way up to the stage, Chantal chipperly and literally hopping after him, and Ray following suit.

Behind the line, Bonnie soon followed, lagging behind slightly as though dreading the trek up to stand in front of a large crowd.

It was the moment of truth for this ragtag team. They had pulled together in the forest through ties between Chantal and Bonnie, and well, just pure luck. Now it was time to let fate decide their destinies.

"The four of you retrieved the black queen pieces."

Could the process go any slower? Or maybe it just seemed slower because of all the anticipation in the room.

Iren seemed relatively unchanged in expression, sure, but contrarily, Bonnie was shaking in her metal-bottomed boots. Chantal had her fists clenched together, giggling underbreathed in enthusiasm, and Ray just drew out a near in inaudible sigh as though composing himself for what was to come.

"From this day forward, you will work together as Team-"

**A/N:**

**Santa: THIS WILL BE THE DAY WE'VE WAITED FOR! THIS WILL BE THE DAY W.. Oh... *Stops headbanging* ...*Puts on red robe, hat and tips bubble pipe* ..'Ello, dear readers... Here, we discuss the happenings of the latest chapter... So... Raise your hand if you hate Ray. *Insta-raises hand***

**Chained: THIS WILL BE THE DAY, D-D-DAY-DAY-...oh...ah...uhm...those of which who were almost killed by Iren? /Raises hand/ And we've got something special! SO LISTEN UP! **

**Santa: *Has both hands raised*...Well this is embarassing...SO. We've got a poll up! You must be looking at us like Am Gahd Y u Keep on wif deez cliffhangers wut rong wif u! And you probably just flipped shit after seeing that grammar! :D!**

**Chained: I know I did...#GrammarPatrol **

**Santa: Anywhozals. This time around we'd really like to hear your input. So here we go.**

**Poll Question is: "Who Do You Think Made Team Leader?"**

**You can put the answer in a review, or answer the poll located on my profile! We look forward to see what you guys think!**

***Adjusts ascot* I think I'm pretty Leader-like myself, y'know...**

**Chained: That...that right there...that's a lie and you know it -_-**

**Santa: SHADDAP!**

**Chained: Oh! And for those who didn't get that...certain magical girl reference...let's just say Bonnie was about to get the Mami Tomoe treatment...**

**Santa: ...LOL. ANYWHO. *Waves to the lovely snowflakes* Marry early Christmas from the writers of Red Like Raspberries! G'bye, snowflakes! Don't forget to vote!**


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